


To Take the City by Storm

by nellnellcooljay, studiomayaz



Category: GOT7
Genre: 2jae are brothers, Angst, Criminal AU, Day6 Ensemble, Fluff, Kidnapping, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Stray Kids Ensemble - Freeform, Violence, alcohol?, bambam: professional people person, but mark also has regret, but not really, dirty cop scoups, drugs?, jackson is a badass, jaebum is still the leader, jb the dramarama queen, jinyoung is the brains, mark is too, most ships are platonic, or are they, sort of, sorta crack, sunshine younjae, too pure for this criminal world, yugyeom is a hacker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2018-12-02 19:00:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 21
Words: 42,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11515485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nellnellcooljay/pseuds/nellnellcooljay, https://archiveofourown.org/users/studiomayaz/pseuds/studiomayaz
Summary: What would you do if you discovered that all of your friends were also criminals?Would you enlist your younger brother who had just become a doctor to help you form a gang?Would you shoot a text to one of your friends from high school to ask him to help you break into a high security system?Would ask your roommate from college to help you mastermind a heist?Well.. That's what I would do..





	1. Introductions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've already read this and are rereading just a heads up that Nel and I have gone back and edited this chapter further, so it should be much better lol
> 
> If you haven't read this yet... We hope you enjoy! Nel and I have been having a lot of fun writing this and appreciate any form of support <333

The sun beat down on the pavement outside of the van that Jaebum and Jinyoung sat in across the street from a large and impressive house.

“Are you ready?” Jinyoung asked carefully watching inside through the security cameras. “It’s nearly time.” Jaebum watched the house silently for a moment longer before turning to Jinyoung with a nod.

“Alright just get in, grab what you need, and get back out,” Jinyoung said, turning to look at Jaebum seriously. “We can’t have you getting caught again. I don’t have the money to post bail.”

Jaebum glared at Jinyoung from the seat next to him. He picked up the duffel bag at his feet and exited the van, closing the door with a little too much force on his way out. He walked up to the front porch, set his bag on the stoop and unzipped it. 

Looking around quickly to make sure that he wasn’t being watched, he pulled a lock pick set from the bag before squatting down to work on the door. The small com in his ear buzzed softly as Jinyoung turned his end on.

“Can you be any more conspicuous you fucking criminal?” his voice crackled. Jaebum huffed and ignored the nagging. Before long, the door swung open to reveal the overly decorated entryway.

“I’m in,” Jaebum muttered with a grin, stashing the lockpick set back in the duffle. Swinging it over his shoulder, he pushed the door open.

“You picked a lock,” Jinyoung retorted, “you didn’t hack into the CIA.” Jaebum rolled his eyes, carefully stepping over the threshold and entering the still entryway. Jaebum softly crept toward the voices that wafted down the stairs from where the owners of the house were hosting their daytime guests. He and Jinyoung had memorized the house’s layout, so he knew the way to the master bedroom that held the heavy safe that contained what they wanted. 

He softly walked across the thickly carpeted hallway, inching silently toward the closed bedroom door. The door, much like the rest of the house, was immaculate and Jaebum felt like an alarm would be triggered when he touched the handle, but nothing happened as he gently pushed the door open. 

The room was massive and beautiful, an expensive chandelier hung above the huge bed at the center of the room. A jewelry box containing, no doubt, a large sum of money in diamonds sat out on the vanity across from the bed. Jaebum ignored all of this, instead focusing on the closet where he knew that the safe would be hidden. 

“What’s the safe combination?” he whispered to Jinyoung as he softly approached the closet.

“It’ll be open,” was the only response Jaebum got before a white hot pain shot through his head and the world went entirely black.

~~~~

“Okay so listen, all you have to do is hack into the school system and raise his grades and we’re done. Plus his family has a lot of money, easy pay,” Bambam said after hanging up the phone. He stood across the small living room, grinning at Yugyeom who sat sullenly on the couch.

“Exactly, that’s the point. I can do so much more than hack into some low security school system,” Yugyeom shot back, scowling as he opened his laptop.

Bambam made his way across the room to stand behind Yugyeom. He draped himself over the back of the couch and rested his chin on Yugyeom’s shoulder, wrapping his arms lazily around Yugyeom in a loose hug. He watched silently as Yugyeom typed quickly, not really understanding what was going on on the screen, but content watching him no less. 

“I have so much more potential than this, and yet we are working 2 cent jobs for whiny, entitled, snotty brats,” he muttered as he went in and changed the grades.

“Just think,” Bambam said, gently patting Yugyeom’s chest without detaching himself from the hug, “soon enough we will be able show the world exactly what a sick hacker and an actual people person can do.”

“Can’t you find us any real jobs, people person” Yugyeom whined loudly, slamming his computer closed as he finished the job; he turned to face Bambam with a scowl.

“I don’t care how much it pays,” he said crossing his arms and shrugging out of Bambam’s hold, “I refuse to do to do anymore of these stupid jobs.”

“What do you want from me?” Bambam whined, folding himself in half over the back of the couch. He turned his head to look at Yugyeom, pouting dramatically. “It’s not my fault not. I can’t help it that actual criminals aren’t calling us to offer actual work because they all think that we are just some kids who can’t even drink yet. These little jobs are what are going to establish our reputation.”

“You could get a job,” Yugyeom said, pulling him over the back of the couch with a laugh. Bambam rolled over, landing with a huff before pushing himself off the ground to stand, crossing his arms at Yugyeom.

“And ruin the look I have of a rich, entitled teenager who never gets off his ass?” he said, flippantly pushing back his hair.

“You’re not a teennager,” Yugyeom deadpans.

“Eh, close enough.” Bambam shrugged, dusting off his obnoxiously colorful pants. “I’ll go let the client know that the job is done, and I guess also try to get us some real jobs.”

“Please do,” Yugyeom said with a sigh, opening his laptop back up as Bambam rolled his eyes and left the room.

~~~~

Jackson pulled the oversized black hoodie over his head and flipped the hood up. Shoving his hands into the pocket, he felt the cold metal of his knife. With quiet, sure steps, he started down the street toward the building where his targets were. It was a clear night, and Jackson was eager to do the job after having so long been without work.

Upon reaching the building he rolled his eyes and sighed. Of course it was a warehouse. Where else would the low life criminals of the city be? Jackson begrudgingly stepped over the threshold into the dank warehouse.

“How cliche can these people be,” he muttered to himself, his heavy, black combat boots echoing through the empty room. The hair on the back of his neck stood up on end and he slowed slightly, straining his ears to try and hear whatever had caused his discomfort. Hearing the quiet click of the safety of a gun, he sighed and swung around to grab the wrist of the person behind him, causing them to drop the gun they had been holding to the back of his head.

“God,” Jackson said, unloading the gun, pocketing the clip, and throwing the gun across the room. “Fucking amateurs.” He slammed the man into a wall and presses his knife against his neck.

“Where is your boss,” Jackson demanded, doing his best to sound intimidating instead of bored. “Tell me before I slit your useless throat.” The petrified man held his trembling hand in the direction of a corridor that seemed to lead to an office of sorts. Jackson let out a huff of laughter and then plunged the knife into the man’s neck, watching in fascination as blood splattered onto the dirty concrete.

“Nobody likes a snitch,” he muttered, stooping down to carve a ‘J’ in the man’s cheek. He stepped over the body after wiping the blood off of his knife onto the man’s shirt. He put his hands back into the hoodie pocket and lowered his head, effectively obscuring his face with the hood, before continuing casually down the corridor. 

When he reached the door at the end of the hall, he studied it for a moment before deciding to simply knock on the door. There was grunt from the other side followed by a string of curse words before the door swung open to reveal a very overweight man with an angry, red face and a receding hairline dressed in a cheap suit. The smell of cheap cigarettes drifted out of the room from behind the man.

“What did I tell y-” he started but abruptly stopped when he caught sight of the intimidating figure looming in front of him. “Who are you?” the man spat when he regained his composure. Jackson thought for a moment about how cliche this entire situation was before smirking.

“My name is J-Flawless and I am currently your worst nightmare,” he said in his most intimidating voice, doing his best to hold back his own laughter. “You’ve pissed off the wrong people, my friend.” At this, the man began to laugh.

“And what are you going t-” he couldn’t even finish his sentence before the blade of Jackson’s knife plunged into his neck, cutting him off.

“Really?” Jackson mumbled, bending over his body to carve a ‘J’ into the man’s cheek. “How cliche can you get?” He wiped the blood of the knife off on the sleeve of the man’s cheap suit jacket before standing up and making his way out of the warehouse.

~~~~

Mark sat atop a tall, abandoned building entirely hidden by the night, the only light coming from the sliver of a moon hanging above his head. He looked through the scope of the rifle into a window of a building across the street. The lights in the room were off, but with the scope he was able to make out all the furniture in the room, and most importantly, his target.

He steadied his breathing as he lined up the shot, the crosshairs of his sight across the target’s skull. He breathed in deeply, and, as he steadily exhaled, squeezed the trigger, sending the bullet traveling across the space in between the buildings and through the skull of the target.

Mark watched as the blood splattered across the room. He quickly sat up and began to disassemble his sniper rifle by the light of the moon. As he took off each piece he hastily set it in its proper place in the case. When he finished, he slung the locked case over his shoulder, standing to make his way off of the roof. His phone buzzed in his pocket, interrupting his descent on the rusty fire escape.

“What’s up?” he answered, slowing his pace.

_ “Yo, it’s Jackson. Want to get some food or something? I’m starving.” _

“Sounds good to me, where do you want to go and when?” Mark asked, hopping off the end of the fire escape onto the street. Adjusting his grip on his phone, he began to make his way down the street.

_ “How about that one Korean barbecue place that’s near you?” _ he asked, as Mark waved for a cab and climbed in.

“Sure, sounds good. I can be there in like 20 minutes.” Mark responded, fiddling with the strap of the rifle case.

“ _ Isn’t the place only like a 5 minute walk from your apartment? Where are you man? _ ” Jackson asked, sounding genuinely confused. Mark stuttered over his response, startled by the question.

“I... uh... had to drop something off at a friend’s house,” Mark quickly answered. Jackson laughed loudly in Mark’s ear.

_ “You have friends other than me?” _ He cackled.

“Well Jinyoung, but it was a different friend,” Mark defended indignantly. Mark could almost hear the sound of Jackson pouting over the phone.

_ “You mean to tell me that Jinyoung and I aren’t good enough for you? Do we not satisfy all of your needs? _ ” he sniffed.

“I’ll see you in 20 minutes,” Mark laughed before hanging up.

He sat in the car smiling at Jackson’s antics. Soon enough though, the smile had slipped from his face as memories of the heinous thing he had just done for money started to play through his mind.

~~~~

Youngjae sat at his desk, his lamp illuminating his textbook and notes in front of him. His alarm clock showing the time brightly on his nightstand. 3:45 am.

Youngjae raked his hand through his hair as he looked at his calendar. Exams everyday for the next couple of weeks and the KMLE so near. He grabbed his mug and tried to take a sip only to find that it was empty. Sighing he pushed himself to his feet and trudged out to the small kitchen to get more coffee.

After he refilled his mug and was making his way back to his room, he had the thought that Jaebum should have been home already. Pushing his worries aside, he opted to instead focus on his textbook sprawled in front of him.

“Cephalosporins side effects include nausea, diarrhea, rash, pain and inflammation at injection site...” Youngjae mumbled reading from his textbook as he wrote down notes from it.

He glanced at the clock again. 3:56. Jaebum should definitely be home by now.


	2. Have You Seen This Man?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Freshly edited: 3.28.18

Youngjae woke up slowly to the sight of sunlight streaming through his windows. He peeled his face off of the notebook that he had fallen asleep on and reached for his phone. No new messages or missed calls greeted him. In fact, the only thing that his phone displayed was the time: 3pm. He sighed, beginning to be seriously concerned about Jaebum’s whereabouts and wellbeing. Jaebum would have definitely texted him by now. Quickly, he unlocked his phone and scrolled through the contacts until he found Bambam’s name.

“Hey what’s up?” His voice echoed cheerily in Youngjae’s ear .

“Out of curiosity, have you seen my brother in the last 24 hours?” Youngjae said, standing up from his desk to make his way to his mini fridge to get a water bottle.

“Uh… no why?” Bambam responded sounding almost suspicious. In the background Youngjae could just barely make out the distinct clatter of Yugyeom’s keyboard.

“Well fuck, who knows where Jaebum is then, he never came back last night,” Youngjae sighed, making his way back to his desk and collapsing onto his chair. It was unlike Jaebum to be gone for so long without telling him where he was, and it was starting to get to Youngjae. 

“Did you try Jinyoung? I mean they’re pretty tight. Or maybe Mark and Jackson, they’re pretty close with Jinyoung,” Bambam responded thoughtfully. Youngjae sighed again, using his freehand to massage his temple. 

“Well he might be close with Jinyoung, but I’ve never heard either of them mention those two before.” Youngjae said, moving to hold his phone between his shoulder and ear to open his laptop. Navigating to a search engine, he typed in the names that Bambam had mentioned, sighing softly when it predictably yielded too many results to be useful. 

“But if they know where Jinyoung is, they could probably tell you where Jaebum is.” There was a distant sound of Yugyeom on the other end requesting that the phone be put on speaker. Youngjae didn’t question the odd request. 

“Alright fine,” Youngjae said, getting irritated by Bambam’s flippant attitude toward the situation. “How do I get ahold of them?”

“Which one?” Bambam asked sounding far away, confirming Youngjae’s suspicions about being put on speaker phone. Youngjae pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“One of them? Both of them? I don’t care, I need to find my brother,” Youngjae said, becoming desperate.

“I’ll text you their numbers. Don’t do anything stupid in the meantime. You have exams to worry about,” Bambam lazily spoke. “Talk to you later.”

A moment after the call disconnected Youngjae’s phone buzzed with two conveniently labeled phone numbers.

~~~~ 

(The Night Before)

 

Mark arrived at the restaurant after dropping his rifle case off at his apartment, to find Jackson already waiting for him.

“God you’re fucking slow, you know that?” Jackson said with an irritated huff.

“Did you already order food?” Mark asked, ignoring Jackson’s comment. He sat at the seat across from Jackson.

“I would never order food without you. I mean, you do only have two friends. I couldn’t betray you like that,” Jackson said opening the menu. Mark scowled for a moment before laughing.

“Good to know you’ve got my back,” Mark said lightly, grinning at Jackson. 

“Of course I have your back. I’ll always have your back,” Jackson replied, lightly kicking Mark’s leg under the table.

“Thanks,” Mark said quietly, smiling gently down at his menu. A comfortable silence lapsed while they ordered and waited for their food to arrive. 

Eventually, after they had gotten their food and had settled into a familiar rhythm, Jackson spoke again.

“Have you heard anything from Jinyoung recently?” he asked, picking up a piece of meat. 

“No, but I guess I’ve been a little preoccupied recently,” Mark responded with a shrug, playing with the straw of his drink. “He’s probably just been spending more time with JB and his little brother, that’s usually where he ends up when he disappears for a while.”

 

(The Next Afternoon)

Jackson and Mark were lazing around Mark’s apartment, enjoying each other’s company. They were engaged in a stimulating debate over eating leftover pizza cold or warm when Jackson’s phone rang. 

“Who is it?” Mark asked curiously, attempting to lean over Jackson’s shoulder to see who was calling. Jackson looked down at the phone questioningly, angling it slightly so Mark couldn’t see.

“I don’t know…” he trailed off letting the phone ring one more time before finally answering. “Yes,” he demanded in his “work” voice.  

“Hello? Is this... uh Jackson?” the voice on the other end anxiously asked. He sounded young, but that wasn’t necessarily a comfort.

“Yeah, who’s this?” Jackson asked, ignoring Mark’s curious looks and shifting slightly away to ensure that Mark couldn’t hear.

“Uhh… it’s Youngjae…” he trailed off only to continue when Jackson remained silent. “I’m Jaebum’s brother… He’s a friend of Jinyoung… Bambam said you knew them.” Jackson’s eyes widened at that. There was no reason for JB’s little brother to be calling him unless something was seriously wrong. Pulling the phone away from his ear, he looked at Mark.

“It’s JB’s little brother,” he said quietly, holding the phone against his chest. Mark seemed to come to the same conclusion, his expression turning grim.

“Put it on speaker,” he instructed. Jackson complied easily, sharing one last unsure look with Mark before finally speaking again. 

“Yeah,” Jackson said carefully, “I know JB… er Jaebum and Jinyoung. Why are you calling me?”

“I… uh… well… Jaebum is missing and not answering his phone… uh… and I haven’t been able to get a hold of Jinyoung either. I just was wondering if you… you know… know where they are,” the kid - Youngjae - stuttered out. The fact that Jackson’s initial suspicions turned out to be true didn’t bring with it the usual enjoyment.

“Missing? How do you know?” Jackson asked, trying to keep the edge out of his voice.

“Well… I was uh… up late studying… and uh… Jaebum normally comes home before I go to bed, but I haven’t seen him since he left yesterday morning,” Youngjae answered shakily.

“Have you called the police?” Mark suggested, not noticing the look of disgust Jackson gave him.

“You really think it’s that serious?!” Youngjae exclaimed in a shrill, panicked voice. 

“Even if it isn’t serious, the police might be able to help you figure out where he is,” Mark said, ignoring Jackson’s poorly concealed scoff.

“Ok… well I uh… I think that there’s one more thing that I want to try before I go to the police… but thank you for your help,” Youngjae stuttered out.

“No problem, let me know if you find out where Jinyoung and Jaebum are,” Mark added seriously. 

“Uh… thank you again,” Youngjae said before hanging up.

“Well, I guess we know why we haven’t heard from Jinyoung,” Jackson laughed. Mark nodded, still watching the phone.

~~~~

Yugyeom fell onto the couch, his laptop bouncing on the cushion as he collapsed. He picked it up and set it in his lap, opening it as he did so. While logging in, Bambam came out of his room and sat down next to Yugyeom, swinging his legs to rest over Yugyeom’s hands on his keyboard.

“Can I help you?” Yugyeom snapped without any real bite, pushing Bambam’s feet out of the way.

“I’m bored.” Bambam whined, falling dramatically over the edge of the couch.

“Then go play a game or something, don’t bother me,” Yugyeom said, beginning to type on his computer.

“I would love to go do something,” Bambam complained, bringing his head up to pout at Yugyeom, “but it’s not like anybody’s just knocking on our door with jobs.” When Yugyeom didn’t look up at him, he moved so that he was draped over Yugyeom’s shoulders, whining obnoxiously in his ear. 

“And that’s my fault somehow?” Yugyeom huffed, swatting at Bambam, but making no real effort to dislodge him.

A knock on the door interrupted Bambam’s response. Jumping away from Yugyeom, he raced to the door to answer it, desperately hoping for something interesting to be on the other side. Standing there looking lost and confused, was Youngjae.

“Hey,” Bambam said casually, like he had been expecting him. “What’s up?”

“I’m sorry to show up so unexpectedly, but I need Yugyeom’s help,” Youngjae said, fidgeting with his hands. Bambam pouted, crossing his arms.

“I’m helpful too, I mean who do you think gave you Jaebum’s friend’s numbers. Do you think that Yugyeom knows people? No. That’s me. All me,” he whined, sounding like a petulant child. Youngjae stared at him for a second in shock before regaining his bearings and falling into the comfort of friendly banter with Bambam.

“The people that you pointed me to were not Jaebum’s friends, they were Jinyoung’s friends. And yes, I need Yugyeom’s help because you can’t operate a computer to save your life.” Youngjae brushed past Bambam, entering the apartment while Bambam stared after him in bewilderment.

“Well, come in then I guess,” he sniffed, wiping away a fake tear and trailing after Youngjae. 

Yugyeom looked up at Youngjae as he entered the room closely followed by Bambam who immediately reclaimed his spot on the couch beside Yugyeom. Bambam threw his legs onto Yugyeom’s lap, looking smug. Yugyeom sighed in irritation, but didn’t say anything, instead balancing his laptop on top of Bambam’s legs.

“Apparently he needs your help with something,” Bambam said frowning, turning to face Youngjae. “You know you can take a seat.” he gestured to the empty seats across the room. 

“What can I do for ya?” Yugyeom grinned as Youngjae, who had previously been watching their exchange in amusement, sat on the small chair across from the couch.

“Well, you’re pretty good with computers…” he paused, only continuing when Yugyeom prompted him to do so. “Do you think you could track my brother’s phone and find him?” he finished, smiling optimistically.

“Child’s play,” Yugyeom said, already typing. Bambam watched the screen with uncomprehending intrigue. A comfortable silence, interrupted only by Yugyeom’s keystrokes, fell across the room while Youngjae kept trying to remind himself to not get too hopeful that Yugyeom could find him. It was possible that Jaebum had really just been out and his phone had died. That would explain why he hadn’t called or texted, but Youngjae had a feeling that that wasn’t the case. They stayed that way for several more minutes while Yugyeom continued to work.

“His phone really has... a lot of security on it,” Yugyeom muttered in confusion. Bambam sent a confused look to Youngjae who just shrugged helplessly. 

“What does your brother do for a living that he would need security like that on his phone?” Bambam asked curiously, looking from the computer to Youngjae. Youngjae only shrugged again, looking just as lost as they felt. There was no reason that he knew that Jaebum would need to have more security than normal on his phone. The silence that fell over the room after that was more uncomfortable. Something about this whole situation did not sit right with Youngjae, but he wasn’t sure what it was.

“It keeps bouncing his location,” Yugyeom groaned in frustration, hitting the heel of his hand to the laptop. Bambam looked in confusion from Yugyeom to Youngjae to the computer before pulling out his phone. He began to type on it casually, irritating Youngjae by his near flippant attitude toward the situation. Watching them, Youngjae felt completely helpless. As much as he wished he could do something to help, he knew that he had already done everything he could by bringing his problem to these two.

“Don’t you find it a little weird how often your brother is gone? I mean, what kind of job makes him just disappear so often?” Bambam asked mischievously, grinning as he looked up from his phone. Yugyeom pinched his leg, hearing the taunt in Bambam’s voice. Bambam whined, digging his heel into Yugyeom’s leg who just laughed and patted Bambam’s knee. 

“Well sure I guess it’s a little weird, but I just kind of assumed he was out with Jinyoung all the time,” he shrugged. Bambam hummed then went back to typing on his phone. 

Yugyeom glanced over at Bambam’s phone, curious to see why Bambam seemed so concentrated on it. With an over-the-top wink, Bambam locked his phone and tucked it back into his pocket. The information that Bambam had acquired was not something that he wanted to share just yet, especially not with Youngjae in the room. With a sigh, Yugyeom went back to typing on his computer. 

Youngjae looked between the two, watching their silent conversation. He felt entirely out of the loop and out of control. Being in medical school he knew that information was everything, and he was certainly missing a lot.

“I think,” Yugyeom said slowly, looking at his computer in concerned confusion, “I have a location.” Bambam sat up to take a closer look at Yugyeom’s screen. His blood ran cold when he looked at the location that Yugyeom had found.

“Youngjae,” Bambam said slowly, tearing his eyes away from Yugyeom’s computer. “We’ll take care of it from here. You should go home and study.” Standing, he grabbed ahold of a very confused Youngjae’s arm and tugged him to the front door. “It was great of you to stop by! We’ll text later!” he chirped, shoving Youngjae out of the door and locking it when he was over the threshold.

Walking gravely back to Yugyeom, he sat back down and leaned onto Yugyeom’s side, looking back at the computer.

“Jaebum’s really dug his own grave,” Bambam mumbled, chewing his nail as he stared at the blip that showed Jaebum’s current location. 


	3. Silent Shot, Meet J-Flawless

“He can’t actually be there, can he?” Yugyeom whispered in disbelief staring at his computer. Bambam’s gaze was still locked on his phone, he was stunned into silence. Youngjae had left several minutes prior, seemingly scared away by the completely silent Bambam. 

“You do know what it means if he’s actually there, right?” Yugyeom asked, finally looking up from his computer. Bambam finally locked his phone and scrubbed his hands over his face. 

“Yes,” Bambam whispered, his first words since telling Youngjae to leave. “There’s definitely a reason that he’s there. Mr. Park and his cronies don’t usually kidnap just anybody.” 

“I guess you’re right, he must have done something to piss Mr. Park off, but I don’t know what he could have possibly done,” Yugyeom closed his laptop, and stood, beginning to pace across the living room. Bambam stared gravely at Yugyeom for a long second.

“I think that we both know what it probably was,” he said slowly, setting his phone facedown on the coffee table. “There’s nothing Mr. Park hates more than a thief.”

“Well from what we’ve figured out, Jaebum and Jinyoung aren’t exactly upstanding citizens,” Yugyeom laughed humorlessly.

“So he’s going to die in there if we don’t help right?” Bambam asked exasperatedly, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. “Wait,” he said suddenly, “what about Jinyoung?”

“Give me a sec,” Yugyeom sprinted back to the couch and aggressively opened his laptop and began typing frantically. He suddenly stopped. “Fuck…”

~~~~

Jinyoung awoke slowly, the last thing that he remembered was running into the house only half armed toward a group of heavily armed criminals. Well that and the sharp pain in the side of his head. 

The light in the room was dim, but he could make out a shape slumped on the chair beside him. Giving an experimental tug on his wrists, he found them tightly bound to the chair behind his back. 

“Fuck,” he whispered, beginning to become slightly more frantic. Just then, the heavy door directly in front of them swung loudly open to reveal a muscular man shadowed on one side by a very lithe man and the other by another athletic and intimidating man.

“Well,” the man in the middle said lowly, “look who is finally awake.”

“Mr. Park,” Jinyoung rasped.

“So you know me,” Mr. Park replied with a grin. “Then I guess you also know what I’m capable of.” The grin was replaced with a snarl. The intimidating man to the side of Mr. Park crossed his arms and stared daggers at Jinyoung.

The smaller man to the side of Mr. Park made sympathetic eye contact with Jinyoung, and Jinyoung’s eyes widened slightly in recognition. 

“I guess when your friend here wakes up, if you don’t readily answer my questions then you will see first hand exactly what I can do.” Mr. Park turned on his heel and stalked away, his shadows following quickly behind him.

~~~~

“There’s really no way that they’re there,” Yugyeom was repeating quietly to himself as he watched Bambam typing quickly on his phone as he paced the room. 

“Well it looks like they are, as our resources so clearly point out, and because you insisted, it’s probably best that we help them,” Bambam sighed setting down his phone and pulling out a nail file, dramatically leaning against the couch.

“Okay,” Yugyeom said, finally snapping out of his trance. “Can we talk ab-”

“We’re going to need a team, we don’t want to get our hands dirty,” he cut off Yugyeom continuing to perfect the shape of his nails.

“Mr. Park cannot trace this back to us,” Yugyeom said, finally picking up his computer and beginning to type. 

“I have a couple of contacts that could be helpful,” Bambam grinned, slipping the nail file back into his pocket and pulling his phone back out. “Not traceable back to us.” Yugyeom looked back up at Bambam from his computer. 

“Who exactly are you thinking of?” Yugyeom asked carefully.

“Oh you know, someone with very special talents,” he winked, opening up the contacts and lifting his phone up to his ear.

~~~~

Jackson was sitting alone in his apartment idly scrolling through twitter on his phone. As a general rule, he tried to not leave his apartment when he was alone for fear of being recognized. Though that rule didn’t alleviate the boredom of just sitting at home on twitter. Suddenly, a call from Bambam came through interrupting his twitter scrolling. With a deep sigh, he answered the phone, not really prepared to have a conversation with Bambam.

“J-flawless, I need a favor,” the voice on the other side of the line droned. Jackson sighed once again, falling backward onto his bed. 

“I don’t do favors, I do jobs,” he said in his best J-flawless voice that he could muster while he was this bored. 

“Whatever you want to call it, but I need you to get some of my friends out of a sticky situation,” Bambam stated professionally.

“When and where do you need me?” Jackson spoke carefully. Bambam breathed in sharply through his teeth.

“Well, they’ve managed to… uh... been somehow taken by... uh… Mr. Park,” Bambam stuttered out quickly. Jackson shot up, his eyes wide. He quickly reclaimed his composure, boredom dissipating entirely.

“I’ll do it, but I need an eye in the sky,” Jackson said seriously, already getting into character.

“Gotcha,” Bambam’s smile evident even through the phone. “I’ll be in touch,” he hung up.

~~~~

“Yugyeom, I need you to find me the best sniper you can,” Bambam said already typing quickly on his phone.

“Well I have several that we have worked with in the past on standby, but I’m not sure that any of them would want to work with J-Flawless. Much less be willing to help undermine Mr. Park for less than several million dollars.”

“Just get me a number,” Bambam rolled his eyes. “Wait,” he said suddenly, “who’s Silent Shot?” Bambam asked looking up at Yugyeom curiously.

“Oooo…” he said distractedly, typing quickly on his computer, “It seems he’s one of the best and it seems like he’s up for any job that pays,” Yugyeom turned his laptop around so Bambam could type the number into his phone. He typed the number quickly and lifted it up to his ear.

“Silent Shot?” Bambam spoke carefully into the phone.

~~~~

Mark sat alone in his tiny apartment, silently staring at the place where his rifle was hidden away. As a general rule, he tried to stay out of his apartment as much as he could, whether he’s just wandering the city or distracting himself with Jackson’s eccentric personality. Though the rule didn’t always provide an escape for the regrettable thoughts in his mind. Bullets through heads he wasn’t sure deserved it. He shook the thoughts out of his head as his work phone started ringing, displaying Bambam’s phone number brightly across the screen.

“Silent Shot?” Bambam asked carefully. Mark choked on air in shock. How did Bambam know he was Silent Shot? How was Bambam so okay with it? Why was Bambam contacting Silent Shot in the first place? He yanked his phone away from his ear coughing several times before attempting to speak again. He spoke at a slightly lower voice than normal to make sure Bambam didn’t recognize him.

“Uh… yeah, yes, yep that’s me I’m Silent Shot,” Mark stuttered as confidently as he could.

“I have a job for you,” Bambam said suspiciously, suddenly much less confident in the abilities of this supposed best sniper. He paused for an uncertain moment before sighing and moving on. “I have a couple of friends that have gotten themselves captured by Mr. Park, and I have a guy on the ground, J-Flawless, you might know him. Well you might not know him necessarily because most people that have met him personally are no longer among the living, but I’m sure that you have probably heard of him. Most people in our business have at least. Anyway, he’s only going to do it if he has an eye in the sky, and I’ve heard that you are pretty good at that. At least your name seems to imply that you are at least proficient with a rifle. Also, there’ll be a pretty penny in it for you...”

Mark remained silent as Bambam continued to ramble in his ear. Why in the world did Bambam have friends who were being captured by Mr. Park? Why was Bambam contacting J-flawless? Why was Bambam contacting a sniper? He finally regained his composure enough to respond. 

“I’ll do it,” he clipped out, hanging up his phone. He threw his phone facedown on his bed as it buzzed, presumably with a text from Bambam regarding the details of the job. His sniper sat expectantly in its hiding place. 

~~~~

Jackson stood on the corner of a city block that was only a few blocks away from the warehouse where he would be storming in to save Bambam’s friends. His oversized, black hoodie hung loosely over his body and his face was concealed by the hood pulled securely over his head. His hands were shoved into the massive pocket, gripping his knife tightly. 

He was waiting for the sniper that Bambam had promised he had found. He checked his watch impatiently. 1:59 am. They were supposed to meet at two. He tapped his foot against the concrete for a moment before stopping abruptly. Light footsteps were headed toward the meeting spot. He stepped into the shadow of the building and held his breath, it would be foolish to assume that just because somebody was walking toward the meeting place it was the sniper. He could see a slender silhouette coming closer.

“Mark?” Jackson asked when the silhouette stepped under a streetlight. He cocked his head to the side and stepped out from the shadows as he pushed his hood back off his head. His eyes fell on the conspicuous gun case held carefully in Mark’s hands.

“Jackson?” Mark’s face went red. His arm swinging the case in his hand to try and hide it behind his back.

“You’re the eyes for this job, aren’t you?” Jackson asked darkly, flipping his hood back up.


	4. Saving Private Im

“Jackson,” Mark called, chasing after Jackson’s retreating form. “Can we please talk about this?” Jackson’s shoulders were tense as he continued to walk.

“There’s nothing to talk about besides the job,” Jackson replied tensely. 

“Jackson please just listen to me,” Mark begged, running forward to grab Jackson’s wrist.

“Aren’t you supposed to be silent or something?” Jackson snapped, yanking his wrist away. “I mean if you are gonna keep talking, you should probably change your name from  _ Silent Shot _ ,” Jackson said the name as though it were poison on his tongue.

“Why are being such a bitch about this? I’m not the only one who was keeping secrets apparently,” Mark huffed, stomping his feet like a petulant child.

“Either way,” Jackson said coldly, beginning in the direction of the warehouse again, “we have a job we need to do. We can have this conversation later.”

“Fine,” Mark spun on his heels, making his way to the warehouse across from the one Jackson would soon be storming. “I’ll text you when I’m in position,” Mark began to jog and disappeared into the doorway.

Jackson sighed deeply and scrubbed his hands over his face.

“Pull yourself together,” Jackson mumbled to himself. “You can worry about the fact that Mark is apparently a fucking sniper later.” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his knife. The weight was familiar and reassuring in his palm and, as he stared down at it, he felt much more at ease. The tension between Jackson and Mark could be temporarily put aside because right now they were J-Flawless and Silent Shot, not Jackson or Mark. His phone buzzed and he slipped it out of his pocket.

**From Markypoo:**

ready when you are

**To Markypoo:**

going in

Jackson slipped his phone back into his pocket, along with his knife, and put on his most casual face and sauntered toward the warehouse. Outside the front door stood two thuggish looking goons, probably new hires with little to no experience.

“Hey boys,” Jackson walked up to them, a cocky smile plastered on his face. “Lovely night isn’t it.”

“Who are you?” one of the thugs grunted out, crossing his arms in what Jackson could only guess was supposed to be an intimidating stance. Jackson hated these guys and their stupid cliches. Can’t the mob bosses hire some bubbly girls or something? Spice things up a bit?

“Who I am really doesn’t concern you,” Jackson said with a shrug. “What does concern you is that I would like to get inside this adorable warehouse of yours.” Jackson cocked his head to the side and grinned.

“Ain’t nobody goin’ in ‘les boss invites ‘em, kid” the other thug said, staring Jackson down. Jackson’s grin slid off of his face as he locked eyes with the thug. He even talked like he is straight out of some sort of gang movie. Couldn’t these guys be creative, at least?

Jackson pulled his knife out and started twirling it nonchalantly in his fingers. He continued to stare at the other man who was getting more and more anxious, his meaty hand sliding over to his gun.

“Kid eh? Think a kid is capable of this?” Jackson took a quick step toward the cliche of a man and swept his knife lightly along his neck before plunging into the man’s neck, just missing the carotid artery. Jackson leaned close to the man’s ear and said quietly, “I’m sure that no green kid would know that if I were to take my knife out of your neck right now, you would live, if you’re in God’s good graces that is, but if I were to slide it a little bit further over, you would die in a matter of seconds. Further, no green kid would have quite the reputation I do. I want my name to be one of the last words that you ever hear before you die, you overgrown moron. I’m J-Flawless, bitch.” With that, Jackson ripped the knife out of the side of the man’s neck, watching him sputter and choke on the ground. He leaned down a carved a ‘J’ onto his cheek.

“Nobody calls me kid,” he muttered, standing back up and wiping off his knife.

Jackson turned to the other man, who was frozen in place staring down at Jackson and his dead partner, and took a step towards him, ready for a fight just as easily when a bullet struck the man in the chest. Jackson watched as it ripped through his heart, leaving a splatter of blood on the side of the warehouse. Jackson was not a fan of guns and didn’t often see what they did to a person, much less this up close and personal. The man dropped to the ground as a pool of blood seeped out, surrounding his dead body. 

Jackson let out a low, impressed whistle as he stepped over the pool and into the building, glancing back at where he could only assume Mark was hidden. He wasn’t a fan of his friend being in the same line of business, but had to admit that Mark was good at what he did.

Jackson walked further into the warehouse. He was really getting sick of these dusty, spider web-y, run down, and not to mention  _ massive  _ warehouses. Seriously, a nice, small farmhouse would do the trick just fine. Now he has to find the one room among hundreds that has his people of interest are currently in probably tied to a chair or something like that. Jackson was really sick of these goddamn warehouses.

~~~~

Jaebum woke up groggily to Jinyoung whispering his name. He groaned softly, squeezing his eyes closed. His head throbbed and his hands were bound uncomfortably behind his back, the ropes digging into his wrists.

“Jaebum,” Jinyoung was whispering. “Please wake up. We have to figure out how to get out of here.” Jaebum grounded again, slowly opening his eyes to look around. A cement room, a single dangling light from a cord, a single heavy door, and Jinyoung sitting in another chair near him.

“I’m awake,” Jaebum finally said. “Where are we?” He squinted his eyes against the bright glare of the light. 

“One of Mr. Park’s warehouses somewhere,” Jinyoung said, watching Jaebum. “I told you to be careful, just because I don’t have to post bail this time doesn’t make it any better.”

“It’s not my fault,” Jaebum groaned, letting his head fall backward. “I was careful, it’s just Mr. Park is more careful. I figured you’d be able to bypass the security.”

“You could have at least told me that we were robbing the house of a  _ known _ affiliate of Mr. Park,” Jinyoung snapped, staring Jaebum down. Jaebum could feel the heat of the stare even with his eyes closed. He swallowed hard and rolled his to the side so that he could look at Jinyoung without lifting his head.

“You…” he paused, trying to think of a good excuse. “You would have said no.” It was lame, but the probable concussion was making it really hard to think. 

“Yes!” Jinyoung shouted angrily. “I would have said no because that was dumb!”

“Neither of us got hurt,” Jaebum mumbled closing his eyes again.

“Are you listening to yourself?” Jinyoung asked hoarsely. “You probably have a concussion and Mr. Park is going to be back any minute to torture information out of us. Not to mention, we are currently tied to chairs because we were  _ kidnapped _ .” Jinyoung growled the last word, ashamed that someone had been one step ahead of them.

There was a small knock on the door interrupted any reply that Jaebum might have been trying to think of and Jaebum and Jinyoung glanced at each other, confused by the manners of who they could only assume was one of Mr. Park’s men.

“Come in?” Jinyoung called out cautiously.

The smaller man who had been with Mr. Park earlier tiptoed in, turning to close the door very carefully behind him. As he turned back around to face Jinyoung and Jaebum, Jinyoung let out a soft gasp.

“Wonpil?” he whispered in shock. “What are you doing back here?”

“Hi, guys,” he said, giving an awkward wave. “Glad to see that you are awake Jaebum. I hope your head doesn’t hurt too much.” The only response that Jaebum gave was a low groan as he closed his eyes and let his head fall back.

“Alright,” Wonpil said, turning to face Jinyoung. “I can help you guys get out of here, but you have to make sure that no one knows that I’m the one helping you. If Mr. Park finds that I have betrayed him, I don’t know what he’ll do to me,” he said, stepping towards the two. 

“Deal, but at some point you’re going to have to tell me what the hell you’re doing here with Mr. Park and his crew,” Jinyoung said as Wonpil began to saw at the ropes with a knife he pulled out of his pocket.

“Um,” Jaebum’s voice startled Wonpil slightly causing him to jump and almost cut Jinyoung. Jaebum had woken up more from his earlier hazy state, and his mind was finally starting to catch up with the situation at hand. 

“Yeah, Jinyoung, I have a question,” Jaebum asked slowly, still trying to process the situation. At that moment, Wonpil had finally cut through the last of the rope and Jinyoung rubbed his wrist where the ropes had left slight burns.

“I probably have answers, but we definitely do not have time,” Jinyoung said, taking the knife from Wonpil and coming over to cut Jaebum out.

“Right,” Jaebum said slowly, “but I have one that I’m going to need you to answer now. Who is this asshole and how can we trust him?” Jaebum growled. Jinyoung easily sliced through the ropes around Jaebum’s wrists. Jaebum rubbed them together, wincing slightly at the rope burn.

“Like I said,” Jinyoung said, standing and offering Jaebum a hand, “I have answers, but we don’t have time.” Jaebum gave him a wary look before taking his extended hand and pulling himself to his feet unsteadily, leaning onto Jinyoung for support as Jinyoung put an arm around his waist, holding tight to keep Jaebum upright.

“Alright guys,” Wonpil started to explain, “the guards sort of change posts at about the same time which should be really soon, so-” he was cut off by a commotion in the hallway. A muffled thump followed by a small grunt.

The door flew open and all three looked toward the only entrance in the room in startled confusion, Jinyoung brandishing the knife, which he had just used to cut Jaebum free, at the imposing threat. Jinyoung used his arm that was wrapped around Jaebum’s waist to pull Jaebum behind him, putting himself between Jaebum and the doorway.

“I swear to God if this is another empty…” Jackson trailed off as he realized that for one, he had found the hostages he was looking for, two that they were Jinyoung and who he could only assume was the allusive JB, and three it looked like they had already gotten themselves free.

“You mean I had to deal with all these fucking dumbasses and their dumb goddamn cliches to rescue you two, and you already fucking got yourselves out?” he scowled, crossing his arms. 

“Jackson?” Jinyoung asked staring at him in confusion, the arm holding the knife dropping to his side. Jackson sighed and pulled out his phone from his jean pockets.

“There’s no way Mark is going to believe this bullshit,” he muttered to himself as he began typing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We apologize for anatomical incorrectness, and therefore the reason behind Jackson's actions are not our fault :)


	5. Paging Dr. Choi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry the wait was so long between this update and the last. Nellie and I made it a little longer to make up for it <3

“Jackson,” Jinyoung demanded as Jackson slid his phone back into his pocket with a sigh, “what are you doing here?”

“Well I do like money, and typically I get paid for jobs,” Jackson said scowling, not happy with the fact that one of the targets was a good friend. “The real question is what the fuck did you do to get on Mr. Park’s bad side?” He pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Can you guys talk about this another time?” Wonpil interrupted. “It’s only a matter of time before reinforcements show up.”

“Oh no,” Jackson said, casually turning his attention to Wonpil, “they’re already here. Mark told me that they are currently coming inside. I just don’t care about wanna be cliche thugs.” He pulled out his knife and stepped closer to Wonpil and pressed it gently to his cheek. “Nobody in this little operation scares me and the next time that you interrupt a conversation I’m having, you’ll see how little you all scare me.” 

He was glaring daggers at Wonpil. Jackson knew that, reasonably, there was absolutely no reason for him to be threatening an ally, but he was pissed off and Wonpil still technically worked for Mr. Park.

“Jackson can you stop threatening him so we can leave before we’re all captured,” Jinyoung said exasperated, stepping forward to lightly push on Jackson’s chest while dragging Jaebum along. Jaebum groaned as he was forced to move forward with Jinyoung, still leaning heavily onto him for support. 

“Fine, let’s go then. I really don’t feel like wasting anymore energy on killing people who don’t know how to fight. It’s too easy, no fun,” Jackson said, turning on his heel to walk out of the room. Wonpil stared after him as Jinyoung heaved Jaebum to a more easily maneuverable position to begin following. 

In the time that they had been standing around talking, Jaebum had been fading in and out of consciousness again, which deeply concerned Jinyoung. Jaebum’s concussion hadn’t seemed that bad earlier, but really Jinyoung had no idea. All that he knew was that Jaebum was quickly becoming a dead weight on his arm and there were reinforcements, probably with guns, currently swarming the warehouse that they were so desperately trying to escape.

“Let me help you,” Wonpil said, moving to help support Jaebum on his other side.

“Thanks,” Jinyoung muttered, as he started after Jackson.

Further down the hall, Jackson was muttering to himself as he swept his knife through the air in irritation. One of Mr. Park’s thugs walked around the corner just ahead of where Jackson had been walking. Before the thug could even alert the others in the area, Jackson had stabbed his knife into the thug’s throat and watched as he sputtered and fell. Squatting down next to the body, Jackson carved a ‘J’ into his cheek, all the while muttering under his breath. 

“Are you sure that we can trust this guy?” Wonpil asked skeptically, watching the display in front of him.

“Never wasn’t able to trust Jackson,” Jinyoung grunted as he repositioned Jaebum, “I see no reason that I’m not able to trust J-Flawed or whatever the fuck he’s calling himself.” Jinyoung pulled Wonpil along through Jaebum so they were moving at a slightly faster pace. 

“Alright, I guess any friend of yours is a friend of mine,” Wonpil sighed, quickening his pace to match Jinyoung’s.

Jackson stopped at the corner in front of them, holding up a hand signaling for them to stop. He leaned forward to peer around the corner and quickly ducked back behind the wall, a gunshot ringing, whizzing past where Jackson’s head was seconds ago.

“So they have guns, I guess,” Jackson said testily, aggressively throwing his knife blindly around the corner. There was sound of a soft thunk as the blade sunk into flesh and a groan from whoever Jackson hit.

“Why wouldn’t they have guns?” Wonpil asked, bewildered. “Don’t you have a gun?” When Jackson only glared back at him, he said quickly, “Please for the love of God tell me you have a gun.”

“Why would I need a fucking gun when I know the best goddamn sniper in this goddamn city, but could he be bothered to tell me that? No. Of course he fucking wouldn’t, not like I’m his best friend or anything,” Jackson growled, his words trailing off into quiet muttering to himself. He punched the wall once before rounding the corner.

“Should we follow?” Jinyoung asked uncertainly as they listened to the commotion from around the corner. The noises of a fight, although it was unclear who was winning. Wonpil glanced down at Jaebum who was still being supported through wavering consciousness between them.

“No,” Wonpil said finally. “You said you can trust him. He can handle it.”

“Mother _ fucker _ !” Jackson shouted just then as a shot was fired. “I guess all you criminals just fucking  _ love  _ shooting people.” There was then a thud of fist against flesh followed by an angry grunt.

“God, fucking hold him up for a second,” Jinyoung said to Wonpil, slipping out from under Jaebum’s arm. Wonpil watched Jinyoung warily as he supported the rest of Jaebum’s weight.

Jinyoung stepped out from from behind the corner, with his arms crossed across his chest and a cocky grin plastered across his face. In a rare moment of alertness, Jaebum seemed to register the situation happening around him. 

“Okay, so I’m going to need you guys to chill, and step the fuck away from J-Flawless here before the rest of my men get here and tear each and everyone of you apart,” he grinned.

One of the thugs squinted at Jinyoung, suspicious of his words. Jackson sighed deeply and muttered something along the lines of ‘oh the cliches’ as he leaned against the wall for support, his leg dripping blood from where he was, presumably, shot. Jaebum struggled against Wonpil’s weak, supportive hold and lurched forward toward Jinyoung.

“If you had any men, they would be here with this fucker,” the thug gestured with his shoulder at Jackson. “You’re bluffing,” he smirked, raising his gun at Jinyoung.

Several things happened simultaneously: the thug pulled the trigger of his gun. Wonpil made a grab for Jaebum as he practically fell towards Jinyoung. Jaebum ran into Jinyoung, pushing him out of the way just in time to be shot himself. Jackson stabbed the shooter in the back of the neck. 

“Jaebum!” Jinyoung shouted, rushing over to his fallen friend, collapsing onto his knees beside him. “Jaebum, how are you this stupid?” he asked nearing hysteria, pressing his hands down against Jaebum’s bleeding torso. “God, we can’t even fucking go to the hospital. How the fuck would we explain this? We wouldn’t, that’s how you fucking dumb asshole. This is almost worse than-”

“Jinyoung fucking chill,” Jackson said limping over to them, “we have to get out of here before there are more reinforcements than Mark can hold off. We’ll worry about whether or not he’s alive when we get out,” he growled, grabbing at Jinyoung’s sleeve, dragging him up.

Wonpil rushed over and helped move Jaebum who groaned loudly in pain as he was moved. They moved more slowly through the rest of the warehouse, Jackson limping and clutching his knife still glaring ahead as though the air had wronged him, while Wonpil and Jinyoung supported Jaebum between them. Thankfully, it looked like Mark had successfully picked off the rest of the reinforcements outside. 

As soon as they were finally out of the warehouse, Jinyoung and Wonpil set Jaebum down on the ground as Jackson put away his knife and pulled out his phone, stepping away to make a call. Jinyoung began to descend into hysterics once again and he continued to stress over the extent of Jaebum’s injuries.

“Concussed, shot, and probably more. How the fuck did it end up like this. He hasn’t come back into consciousness since he was shot either, which is just fucking great. God, if he hadn’t been such a dumbass and had just  _ told  _ me that we were that we were robbing an associate of Mr. Park then  _ maybe _ he’d be alright…” Jinyoung kept rambling as he pressed down on Jaebum’s wound.

A ways away, Jackson had the phone pressed against his ear. 

“Thanks for the reinforcement,” he muttered to Mark over the phone. Things were still pretty tense between the two of them. It felt odd, though, not being able to just talk to each other. 

“Not my fault there weren’t any windows,” Mark sighed, and Jackson could hear the sounds of Mark walking down the stairs of the building. 

“No, I was being serious,” he whispered truthfully, sincerity was not something that he was entirely used to. “If you hadn’t been here, I’m not sure that I’d have been able to hold back all of the reinforcements that had come.” He looked around the area in front of the warehouse, where several more thugs lay splayed out; clean shots right through the heart.

Jackson turned and watched as Mark exited the warehouse he had been sniping from, phone pressed to his ear. Even from this distance Jackson could see the smile on Mark’s face.

“Are you saying that you, Mr. J-flawless, could not handle the situation?” his tone was light and teasing, which worked to put Jackson more at ease. The tension between the two melted away. Mark got closer and Jackson hung up the phone, slipping it into his pocket, grinning back at Mark.

“Sometimes even the infamous and great J-Flawless needs help from a friend,” he laughed.

“And you say that you don’t like cliches,” Mark replied exasperated. He then caught sight of Jackson’s leg and hands, both covered in blood. “You were hurt,” he observed, panic edging into his voice, “and you’re covered in blood.” Jackson hummed as he looked down at his leg.

“I guess I was,” he stated looking at it, “but it’s not that bad and most of this blood isn’t even mine. We should get help for JB.”

“Jinyoung’s mysterious JB,” Mark mused, looking over to where Jinyoung was hunched over Jaebum’s motionless form with Wonpil towering over them. “He was also shot?” He asked, a quick glance at Jackson who only nodded in response. “We should call Bambam, he’ll know what to do.”

“That fucker doesn’t know how to do anything, but he’ll know who to call,” Jackson said offhandedly, reaching for his phone.

After a quick call with Bambam, Jackson hung up and looked at Mark.

“Jaebum has a doctor for a brother. His name is Youngjae. We can take him to their apartment,” Jackson said and then looked back over at Jinyoung and Jaebum.

Jinyoung was still rambling at Jaebum’s unmoving body as blood slicked his hands when Mark and Jackson walked over, Mark supporting Jackson.

“Jinyoung,” Mark said gently, leaving Jackson to stand alone as he went to squat down next to Jinyoung. “We need to get Jaebum to see somebody who can help him.” Jinyoung didn’t seem to hear Mark as he kept talking at Jaebum, tears streaking down his face. Mark looked back to Jackson who just shrugged and pulled out his knife to idly wipe the blade on his hoodie. Mark rolled his eyes before placing a gentle hand on Jinyoung’s shoulder.

“Jinyoung,” he tried again, a little bit louder. “We need to take him to Youngjae.” There was a long silence following Mark’s words as Jinyoung stared down at Jaebum.

“He wouldn’t like that,” Jinyoung whispered, finally breaking out of his trance like state to look up at Mark. Jinyoung’s face was covered in dirt, blood, and tears and Mark’s heart broke for him. 

“I know he wouldn’t, but it’s better than taking him to the hospital,” Mark said, trying to keep his voice level.

“Bambam sent a car, who the hell knows how he managed that, but it should be here soon,” Jackson said, returning his knife to his pocket. He shifted slightly on his feet, grimacing and ghosting a hand over the wound on his leg.

Jackson looked at Wonpil who was standing on the other side of Jaebum.

“Thanks for your help,” he said, scowling slightly thinking about how little Wonpil actually did to help. Wonpil nodded.

“I’ll be on my way then,” Wonpil said, awkwardly pointing over his shoulder. He turned and walked back toward the warehouse. 

Jackson stood over the three as Mark gently rubbed Jinyoung’s back, whose body shook as he pushed his palms into Jaebum’s bullet wound. They waited in silence for a few minutes before a black SUV pulled up next to them. A driver climbed out and bowed slightly.

“I was told to tell you ‘ya boi Bambam gotcha covered’,” the driver coughed awkwardly before opening the doors to the back seat

“Can you stab him for me?” Jackson asked innocently. “I can even lend you a knife.” Mark shot him a disapproving look as he helped Jinyoung lift Jaebum and walk toward the car. Jaebum groaned quietly as he was moved.

“Sorry sir, I was simply ordered to take you to a specific location,” he said, deadpanned before walking around the car and climbing back into the driver’s seat.

“I can even pay you,” Jackson called after him before Mark kicked him and instructed him to get into the car.

Once everyone clambered into the car, covering the interior with blood while doing so, the driver pulled away and drove through the streets of Seoul, a tense silence settling over the car.

They arrived at Jaebum and Youngjae’s apartment quickly. Mark helped Jinyoung carry Jaebum out of the car and up the several flights of stairs toward the brothers’ home. Jackson slowly followed, the exhaustion combined with being shot forcing him to move more slowly. 

When they arrived at the door, Jinyoung knocked loudly. There was a loud crash followed by shuffling from inside, then the door was aggressively thrown open to reveal a worried boy with large dark circles under his eyes and a mess of hair on his head. 

He scanned the four on his doorstep before his eyes settled on Jaebum. He gasped loudly and stumbled forward, his hands ghosting over the wound. He looked up at the other three. 

“How… What… Oh my god… I… What the fuck did you do to my brother,” he stuttered shrilly. “He trusts you and this ends up happening to him? How did this happen to him? Oh my god we have to get him to a hospital! Is this a bullet wound? Is there even an exit wound? I don’t know surgery, Jinyoung!” He started rambling, voice slowly growing until he was screaming, as he looked over Jaebum. 

“Youngjae,” Jinyoung said, voice soft. “We can’t go to the hospital. We wouldn’t even be here if we could help it. Please help him.” Youngjae stared at him, eyes wide and terrified.

“Jinyoung,” he started, looking back down in terror at Jaebum. “I don’t know-”

“Please, Youngjae,” Jinyoung begged. “Please.”


	6. It's Not All Sunshine and Rainbows

“Go get me the first aid kit,” Youngjae instructed Jinyoung calmly as they laid Jaebum on the couch. “Fuck...” he sighed, staring for a long moment at Jaebum as Jinyoung ran to get the first aid kit. “I really need more than a first aid kit. It would have been nice if you guys had given me some kind of warning because then I could have gotten a suture kit from the hospital, and maybe even some drugs,” he sighed, taking the kit from Jinyoung’s hands, unzipping it and laying it on the coffee table in front of the couch.

“I mean,” Jackson piped up from across the living room where Mark had forced him to sit down, “if you really need some drugs…” he trailed off with a shrug. Neither Youngjae nor Jinyoung made any indication as to hearing what Jackson had said.

“Jackson, I swear if you don’t shut up I’m going to let your wound get infected,” Mark rolled his eyes, rolling up Jackson’s left pant leg to inspect the gunshot.

“You wouldn’t,” Jackson gasped in mock offense placing his hand over his heart, watching Mark work. Mark ignored him and the room fell into a very tense silence only broken by the occasional instruction from Youngjae.

A rhythm had fallen over the room when, eventually, there was a loud knock on the door and, before anyone could say anything, Bambam strutted into the room with Yugyeom trailing behind him, an exasperated expression on his face. Mark looked up from where he and Jackson had fallen into a soft conversation and cocked his head the side as a deep sigh escaped Jackson’s lips. Jinyoung and Youngjae all together ignored the entrance, focused on their work.

“Alright bitches,” Bambam announced his presence. “I’m here, so now the actually cool shit can actually begin.” Yugyeom sighed from where he stood next to Bambam and pulled out his phone to ignore his friend.

“How did you even know we were here?” Jackson asked skeptically. “This is, like, the last place that we would be.”

“I found you guys,” Yugyeom stated matter-of-factly, not looking up from his phone. “You never bothered to turn your phones off.” Mark and Jackson both stared at Yugyeom until he finally looked up and glanced between them. Yugyeom shrugged his shoulders and moved to sit down in another corner, still on his phone.

“What an antisocial piece of shit,” Bambam said looking after Yugyeom as Yugyeom flipped him off. 

“I didn’t want to come anyway,” he said unhappily. “We have better things to do like, I don’t know, getting more paying jobs. I might as well try to beat my high score in Candy Crush,” he mumbled.

Bambam sighed before turning his attention over to where Youngjae and Jinyoung were still tending to Jaebum. “Wow what happened to him. I thought I sent you to save him,” he said, sending Jackson a dubious look. 

“Well he isn’t dead is he,” Jackson stated looking at Bambam deadpan. Bambam sighed before walking over to Youngjae. He placed a hand on his shoulder before sighing dramatically.

“Not under the hands of my very capable friend Dr. Choi,” he said grinning.

“I’m not a doctor yet,” Youngjae said, shrugging Bambam off as he smoothed the last of the bandages over Jaebum’s wounds. Youngjae sat back on his heels and turned to Jinyoung with a sigh looking exhausted. “That’s the most that I can do for him without any real equipment. We’ll have to see what happens from here. I swear to god if you guys got my brother killed...” he trailed off, closing his eyes.

“Hey! We’re not the ones that sent him to steal stuff, I just sent help to get him out of the mess they made,” Bambam guestered to Jaebum and Jinyoung before pulling out his nail file.

“Yeah,” Yugyeom piped up from the corner, “We’re the one’s that sent people to help.”

“We had things under control, you didn’t need to send anyone to fucking save us like some damsels in distress,” Jinyoung growled, scowling at Bambam.

“‘Under control’, sure,” Jackson laughed. “When I showed up Jaebum was basically already unconscious, you guys had no kind of weapon, and reinforcements were on their way. Plus, your ‘help’ was from one of Mr. Park’s own men. So don’t give me this ‘had things under control’ bullshit like life was going to work itself out like some sort of action movie.”

“The reinforcements were only there because you were killing every person you ran into and carving fucking J’s into their cheeks,” Jinyoung ground out, staring hard at Jackson.

“Wait, woah, what,” Bambam said, spinning around to face Jackson, dropping his nail file. “You carve J’s into the cheeks of the people you kill? What kind of sick bullshit?” 

“I need everyone to shut the fuck up and tell what happened from the moment my brother left here until right before you guys showed up to our apartment like it was some sort of hospital,” Youngjae stood, the practiced calm from before replaced with frustration at not understanding the situation.

“Well,” Yugyeom said from the corner, still not looking up from his phone. “From what I have figured out, your brother decided that he really needed something from one of Mr. Park’s wards. He took a less than legal route to obtain said thing and, needless to say, Mr. Park doesn’t particularly like thieves.”

“They were kidnapped,” Bambam said, picking up effortlessly from where Yugyeom had left off. “I then, being such a good friend, called in the best men that I could when Youngjae voiced his concerns to me. These men,” he gestured vaguely in Jackson and Mark’s direction, “then went and saved these two morons,” he gestured at Jinyoung and Jaebum, “who had tried to rob one of Mr. Park’s people. In all of my neverending and infinite knowledge, I have no idea how Jaebum ended up…” he trailed off and gestured to the still unconscious body.

“Well, he was concussed,” Youngjae said staring down at his brother sadly. “He was also shot in the stomach, but it went straight through so I guess that’s good. He’s also been beaten up a lot.” Youngjae said it like he was reading it off a chart, still staring down in concern at his brother.

“That’s what happens when you piss off Mr. Park,” Jackson said lowly. “Seriously, why the ever loving fuck would you guys try to rob somebody who is being protected by Mr. Park.”

“It wasn’t my idea,” Jinyoung defended quickly. “I… I tried to save him,” he added softly, almost as an afterthought.

“Didn’t do a very good job, Jinyoung,” Jackson said coldly, crossing his arms. 

“You try to do better when you have no weapons and are totally unequipped to fight Mr. Park,” Jinyoung shouted back, moving toward Jackson, hands clenched into fists.

Mark stared across the room as Jaebum groaned every so slightly and, after a moment, opened his eyes.

“I hate to interrupt this fight you guys are having, but Jaebum is awake,” Mark said, drawing attention to himself.

Jaebum looked around his surroundings for a moment before his eyes went wide. He scanned the room frantically before finally settling on Youngjae. Jaebum glanced away before trying to sit up, but Jinyoung was quickly by his side to gently push him back down.

“Who…” Jaebum’s voice was an almost nonexistent croak. He coughed before trying to speak again.

“Who the fuck brought me here?” he growled.

“I’m sorry,” Jinyoung sighed, his head stooped as he twisted his hands in his lap. “We couldn’t exactly take you to a hospital.”

“Out of all people, I’d expect you to know better than to take me here,” he spat, venom dripping from his voice. He glared daggers through Jinyoung.

“We had no other choice,” Jinyoung’s voice was too quiet.

“You could have let me die,” Jaebum said with an icy finality before letting his eyes flutter back shut and sleep take his body.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you look at that, we updated again and it hasn't even been a month :D


	7. Couples Therapy

“Well that was awkward,” Bambam said as Yugyeom and he sat in the backseat of a sleek black SUV headed back to their own house. Following Jaebum’s morbid statement, the atmosphere of the entire apartment had turned icy, causing the pair to flee. 

“I mean, we kinda stirred up some of that shit,” Yugyeom chuckled slightly. The rest of the car ride was spent in a pleasant, contemplative silence between the two.

When they arrived back at their apartment, Yugyeom swung his long legs out of the car and jogged to the other side to open the door for Bambam. It was almost a rule between the two that it was Yugyeom’s job to open all car doors for Bambam. Bambam elegantly stepped out of the car and started heading toward their door, Yugyeom trailing after him as the car drove away. 

When they got back inside, Yugyeom immediately settled onto the couch with his computer. Bambam fell onto the couch, next to him, throwing his legs over Yugyeom’s lap. Yugyeom balanced his computer on Bambam’s shins, resuming his earlier project as Bambam got his phone out. They lay like this in a comfortable silence that was only punctuated by the soft sounds of Yugyeom typing and Bambam tapping on his phone for a while. 

Eventually, Bambam laid his phone facedown on his chest with a deep sigh. Yugyeom looked over at him, raising an eyebrow in question.

“I guess that our suspicions were confirmed today,” Bambam said almost serenely, closing his eyes. “We have shady friends.”

“Didn’t we basically already know that considering how often you have me hack their phones and shit,” Yugyeom asked rhetorically setting his laptop on the coffee table in front of them and resting his hands on Bambam’s shins. Bambam opened his eyes to look at Yugyeom.

“Yeah, but now it’s confirmed,” he said settling further into the couch. “It was also more or less confirmed because Jackson’s name is  _ J-Flawless _ ,” Bambam said with a little giggle.

“Don’t forget that Mark is Silent Shot,” Yugyeom leaned his head onto the back of the couch, a smirk plastered on his face.

“And not to mention Jinyoung and Jaebum who don’t even try to hide their real names,” Bambam said. He sat up and flipped himself around to pillow his head in Yugyeom’s lap, propping his legs on the arm of the couch. Yugyeom started to play with his hair automatically. 

“Also that emo as hell line that Jaebum had,” Yugyeom lowered his voice a few notches, in a bad attempt at an impression of Jaebum. “‘You could have let me die…’ what the fuck does that even mean?” Yugyeom leaned forward slightly to grin at Bambam. Bambam laughed a breathy and tired laugh.

“He’s just angsty because his foolproof plan to rob Mr. Park didn’t turn out well,” Bambam said, letting his eyes slip shut. Yugyeom looked over at the clock which brightly displayed 3:42 A.M. 

“Let’s go to bed, Bammie,” Yugyeom pushed Bambam into a sitting position before standing up and pulling Bambam up with him.

“But you were so comfortable,” Bambam whined, falling forward against Yugyeom. Yugyeom chuckled before scooping Bambam off his feet and into his arms, making his way to their shared room. Bambam nuzzled his face into Yugyeom’s neck, wrapping his arms around Yugyeom. Yugyeom gently lay Bambam down on the lower bunk of their bunkbed. When he moved to stand back up, Bambam pulled him back down onto the bed.

“You’re warm,” Bambam mumbled into Yugyeom’s neck, cuddling close to him and drifting off to sleep. Yugyeom looked down at his sleeping friend fondly, playing with Bambam’s hair before drifting off to sleep himself.

~ ~ ~ ~

As Jackson and Mark left the tension-filled room, a different tension settled between the two of them. They walked slowly down the darkened street, Jackson leaning heavily on Mark for support. The breeze rustled through the trees by the side of the road, bringing with it the autumn chill.

“My apartment is closer, we can talk there,” Mark offered. “If you want,” he rushed to add, glancing over at Jackson worriedly. Jackson smiled slightly at Mark’s awkward tone.

“As long as you let me stay the night so I don’t have to walk all the way home by myself,” he paused before grinning and continuing. “You never know what kind of boogeymen lurk in the shadows at night.”

“You can stay, but only because you’ve been shot in the leg, not because of the ‘bogeymen that lurk in the shadows,’” Mark laughed, grateful for Jackson’s ability to lighten the mood.

“Mark,” Jackson replied sounding affronted. “I could get shot in the other leg by the boogeymen. Is that really what you want?” Jackson looked up at Mark as innocently as he could. Mark chose not to reply to Jackson as they continued the short walk to Mark’s apartment.  When they finally got there, Jackson was covered in a thin layer of sweat and was breathing heavily from the exertion of walking the distance on his wounded leg. He had begun to place more of his weight onto Mark who was trying his hardest to act as a crutch. Finally, they got up to Mark’s apartment and Jackson fell heavily onto the couch. Mark perched on a chair across from him. 

“Do you need water or anything,” Mark offered weakly, watching Jackson worriedly. Jackson shook his head and looked toward Mark. Both stubbornly remained silent, waiting for the other to speak.

“So, you want to talk about how you are one of the boogeymen?” Jackson asked seriously. Mark cocked his head to the side for a moment before realizing what Jackson meant and opened his mouth to speak, the words coming out in an inaudible whisper.

“Actually,” Jackson said, cutting off Mark’s whisper. “I don’t really care that you  _ are _ one of us, because that would honestly be hypocritical as fuck, I care that you didn’t tell me,” Jackson said, sounding genuinely hurt. “I thought that we were closer than that.” Mark fidgeted with his hands in his lap for a moment before speaking.

“It’s not something I’m exactly proud of,” he mumbled, feeling particularly small. 

“I don’t understand why that means that you didn’t tell me,” Jackson said in confusion. “Did you not trust me to not go to the cops or something?”

“That’s not it at all, I just…” Mark paused, trying to find the right words. Jackson watched him expectantly. “I was kinda dragged into this business, made some bad decisions as a teenager, and I’m not one hundred percent sure how to get out of it,” Mark shrugged sadly.

“What do you mean?” Jackson asked, watching Mark closely.

“I mean-” Mark started before stopped and dropping his face into his hands. “I mean that when I was a teenager I thought it would be cool to try to rob somebody. Well, that somebody was a part of some gang,” Mark laughed humorlessly, face still in his hands. “Instead of killing me, they handed me a gun and sent me to the front lines of some sort of gang war to get  _ myself  _ killed,” Mark finally looked up at Jackson, “but, as it turns out, I’m a pretty good shot,” he grinned slightly. “I guess Mr. Boss-man liked that about me and decided I’d be good on his team. I guess I just worked for him without compensation to ‘pay off my debt,’” Mark laughed mirthlessly again. “I worked for him until I shot him and ran. I ran for so long until I finally ended up here,” Mark looked up at Jackson, tears blurring his vision. “Until I ended up here with you.”

Jackson looked stunned. For once in his life he didn’t have anything to say. Mark watched him, waiting for a response.

“I… I’m sorry Mark,” Jackson stuttered, eyes wide as he watched Mark.

“There’s nothing for you to be sorry about,” Mark smiled gently, moving to sit next to Jackson on the couch. He placed his hand on Jackson’s knee. 

“I don’t have some sort of sob story about how I ended up being who I am,” Jackson grinned over at Mark. “I like who I am and what I do, but if you ever want to get out of the business,”  he sobered as he reached over and squeezed Mark’s shoulder, “I can try to help.” Mark smiled back at Jackson.

“Let’s get to bed,” Mark said pulling Jackson up and helping him into the bedroom.

Mark sat down on his bed and Jackson flopped down beside him. Jackson grinned and grabbed Mark’s shoulder, forcibly laying him down. Mark laughed, allowing Jackson to manhandle him until Jackson had settled himself around Mark.

“So, now that all that heavy shit is out of the way,” Jackson said, chin resting on Mark’s head, “we can go back to how we were?” he finished hopefully, lifting his head to look down at Mark.

“What would be the point of making up if I didn’t force you to cuddle with me,” Mark replied, rolling over and curling into Jackson’s chest. Jackson dusted his fingers over Mark’s back, a gentle smile ghosting his lips.

“When did my life turn into some sort of cliched action, crime drama,” Jackson asked, causing Mark to laugh as he wrapped his arms tightly around Jackson’s middle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1) We're not sorry about how fucking soft this chapter is
> 
> 2) Yugbam will ALWAYS be soft
> 
> 3) Get ready for angst


	8. Family Counselling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back boiz

The silence in the room was deafening as Jinyoung and Youngjae sat watched the sleeping Jaebum. 

“How long have you guys been keeping this from me?” Youngjae asked, betrayal filling his voice as he fiddled with his hands, staring down at his lap. His voice sounded small and childlike, something Jinyoung hadn’t heard since they were much younger. 

“He just wanted his younger brother to be proud of him… You can’t exactly be too proud of a criminal for a brother,” Jinyoung rubbed the back of his neck, sighing.

“That didn’t answer my question,” Youngjae said tersely, clenching his fists tightly in his lap. “How long, Jinyoung.” Jinyoung sighed, closing his eyes before looking over at Youngjae.

“Remember when you learned about that early admittance medical program when you were in…” he trailed off thinking.

“Middle school,” Youngjae finished softly, finally looking up at Jinyoung. His eyes were wide and watery.

“You had your heart set on it, there weren’t many options for us to pay for all of that. Crushing your dream was not something we were going to let happen,” Jinyoung said, sounding honest and genuine. Youngjae’s head snapped up to look at Jinyoung, anger filled his face.

“There were so many other things that you could have done that didn’t involve you risking your lives and breaking the law,” Youngjae shouted, his voice shaking.

“I wouldn’t change what I did,” Jaebum said calmly, startling the boys. He had propped himself up on the couch and was staring Youngjae dead in the eye. Youngjae immediately sprang up and rushed over to him.

“Lay back down,” he ordered, gently pushing on Jaebum’s shoulders. “You shouldn’t be straining yourself like that,” he added quietly. When Jaebum had laid back down, Youngjae took a small step away and hung his head, intertwining his fingers in front of his chest. His hair fell in front of his eyes as he bit his lip.

“How long have you been awake?” Jinyoung asked watching the brothers’ exchange.

“I was never asleep,” Jaebum replied bluntly. “Youngjae,” he said, causing Youngjae to look up at him. His eyes were hopeful, almost like he was hoping that Jaebum would tell him that what Jinyoung had said was a lie. 

“It shouldn’t matter what we did,” Jaebum said plainly. “What matters is that we got you to where you wanted to be. And let me tell you, I could never be more proud of you,” his voice softened as he looked at his little brother who looked at him like his world had been shattered before his very eyes.

“You almost died today,” Youngjae whispered. “Not only that,” he continued, voice never rising from a whisper, “you’ve been keeping this a secret from me. I thought that we didn’t keep secrets.” Tears silently streamed down Youngjae’s face. Jaebum didn’t say anything in reply, instead grabbing onto Youngjae’s wrist and pulling him to his arms. Youngjae fell onto the couch, burying his face into Jaebum’s chest, body shaking.

“What if something had happened and you hadn’t come home?” Youngjae asked, voice cracking around the tears. “What if you had died?” He whispered the last sentence, hands clenching around the fabric of Jaebum’s shirt. Jaebum wrapped his arms around his brother, rubbing small circles on his back.

“He wouldn’t have died, I would have killed him if he died,” Jinyoung said from where he sat a ways away from the brothers. 

“Yeah,” Jaebum said agreeing with Jinyoung. “He would expressly go against my own wishes in order to save my life.” He glared at Jinyoung. “I was in good hands.”

“Alright, asshole,” Jinyoung said, crossing his arms. “If I had just ‘let you die’,” he rolled his eyes as he said it, “do you know how many times Youngjae would have killed me? Probably more than the number of times you’ll kill me for bringing you to him. He’d kill me, and then bring me back, and it would never end,” he grinned, Youngjae grinning back in between hiccups.

Youngjae untangled himself from Jaebum’s arms, then stood up, straightening his ratty, old shirt and wiping off his face.

“Hey,” Jaebum said, watching as Youngjae mechanically checked his dressings, “isn’t that one of my old shirts?” Youngjae’s face quickly reddened, as he looked back down at it.

“You were gone for too long, and it made me feel safe,” he mumbled, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly. “Also,” he added abruptly, “it’s really big and comfortable.”

Jaebum laughed slightly, sharing a glance with Jinyoung, who seemed to mouth something along the lines of ‘cute’.

“Remember when we used to come back and he would be all curled up in your bed because he missed you,” Jinyoung asked Jaebum, laughing fondly. Jaebum smiled softly at the memory as Youngjae’s blush darkened.

“I was just a kid! I got scared being alone for so long!” Youngjae defended, crossing his arms and stomping his foot like a petulant child, causing the other two to laugh again.

The room settled into a comfortable silence for a moment before being interrupted by the sound of Youngjae’s stomach growling slightly.

“Have you eaten?” Jinyoung asked Youngjae, a concerned look in his eyes as he thought about the many times the younger would go days without eating unless someone reminded him too. Youngjae bit his lip and looked down at the ground.

“I ate… breakfast? I think?” Youngjae replied, furrowing his brow in thought.

“When?” Jinyoung demanded immediately.

“The other day…?” Youngjae replied sheepishly with a shrug. “Listen,” he quickly added, “I’ve been studying and it definitely didn’t help when I didn’t hear from either of you for a couple days.” 

“I’ll be right back,” Jinyoung said before disappearing into the kitchen. Youngjae sighed heavily and sat on the ground next to the couch, tilting his head back to rest on Jaebum’s chest. Jaebum absently reached down and started patting Youngjae’s hair.

“You know, Sunshine,” Jaebum said, “you really gotta learn to eat.”

“You know, grandpa,” Youngjae replied mockingly, “you really gotta learn to not get shot.” Jaebum lightly scowled and tugged a little on Youngjae’s hair, making Youngjae’s hands shoot up to his head in an attempt to stop the pain. Jaebum laughed for a moment before letting go of his brother’s hair.

The brothers settled and Jaebum began petting Youngjae’s hair again. Youngjae closed his eyes as he rested his head back on Jaebum’s chest. Jaebum’s eyes began to scan their shared apartment that he hadn’t seen in a few days before his eyes settled on the trash can under Youngjae’s desk, that was overflowing with disposable coffee cups. He stared for a moment before his tired brain connected the dots.

“Youngjae?” Jaebum questioned softly, pushing Youngjae’s hair off of his forehead so that he could better see his face.

“Yeah?” Youngjae leaned his head back to look Jaebum in the eyes. He could really see the dark circles under Youngjae’s eyes now.

“When’s the last time you slept?” Youngjae’s eyes went wide for a moment before he leaned forward to look at his lap.

“Well, I hadn’t slept for a bit before you were missing, and I definitely didn’t sleep while you were gone…” he trailed off. Jaebum reached out and squeezed his shoulder.

“You have to sleep, Sunshine,” Jaebum reprimanded gently. Youngjae leaned back against the couch, reclining his head again. 

“I can’t sleep,” he replied, closing his eyes. “I have exams coming up. Plus, you were missing… I don’t think that I could have slept…”

Jinyoung walked back into the living room carrying a bowl of ramen for each of them.

“So we’re feeding this child and then sending him off to bed, right?” Jinyoung asked Jaebum as he distributed the bowls and patted Youngjae’s head before sitting down on the floor near them to eat. Jaebum grinned at him, also patting Youngjae’s head before taking a bite of the ramen. Youngjae pouted into his bowl, stirring the noodles around a little.

“You guys act like I’m still a child. I’m in medical school now, I’m important,” Youngjae stuck out his tongue at the other two. He quickly sat up, a light bulb practically appearing over his head.

“Now that I’m important, and know about what you two have been doing to get me through school, it only makes sense that I’m part of the team now,” Youngjae grinned, slurping up some noodles.

Jaebum and Jinyoung both sputtered and choked on their ramen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soft JB/Youngjae/Jinyoung family chapter.. plus ~~~story development~~~
> 
> Happy Halloween all of you lovelies!!!! <3


	9. I'm Not a Morning Person

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Super extra long chapter because its been a while, plus why not <3
> 
> Also, you're welcome ;)

Bambam groaned as the sound of his phone ringing awoke him from his precious beauty sleep. He tiredly scanned the room, his eyes eventually settling on the offending device, carelessly discarded on the floor in the middle of the room. Bambam rolled off the bed, grunting as he slammed against the ground, he continued rolling until he rolled on top his phone. He stopped and fished it out from underneath himself before mashing his finger against the ‘answer’ button and then lifting it up to his ear.

“Hello,” a shrill, automated voice cheerily said into his ear. “You have won an all expense paid trip to the wonderful island of awake-ness. Now that you have been awakened, you can finally leave behind the cold world of laziness and get some refreshing work done! To redeem this trip, please call-” Bambam punched the ‘end call’ button before slamming his phone face down on the floor.

“Yugyeom!” Bambam screamed across apartment where he could hear giggling. “I swear to fucking god, if you fucking wake me up to a fucking ‘all expense paid trip’ one more fucking time, I’ll send every fucking hitman in Seoul to beat the everloving fuck out of you.” Bambam scowled as he closed his eyes again, curling up on the floor.

“You’re such a bitch when you first wake up,” Yugyeom said, walking into the room. “You were so much cuter last night.” Yugyeom looked down at Bambam’s curled form and giggled, placing a mug of steaming hot coffee in front of the ball that was Bambam. Bambam sat up slowly and stared into the coffee for a long moment, finally picking it up and taking a sip. He smiled into his coffee before looking up at Yugyeom.

“Even though I fucking hate you because you woke me up, you’re an angel for bringing me coffee,” Bambam hummed, taking another sip of the coffee. “What time is it anyway?”

“Late enough that I got bored,” Yugyeom said, sitting down cross-legged in front of Bambam. “We really do need to find some work or I think I’ll crawl out of my skin.” He crossed his arms over his chest and watched Bambam who seemed very occupied by his coffee. Bambam blinked at him owlishly, cradling the mug in his hands. 

“I’ve been thinking about that,” he said finally, taking a sip of his coffee. “We’ve been wanting to be apart of the big leagues for a while, and I think I know how to do that.” Yugyeom bent forward at the waist, leaning onto his elbows to watch Bambam with intrigue.

“I hope that you are going to suggest what I think that you are going to suggest because if you don’t, I might have to break up with you,” Yugyeom said with a grin. Bambam laughed softly, taking another sip of his coffee. 

“Aw but we’re so good together,” Bambam pouted slightly, before grinning again.

“Then you better suggest what I want you to suggest,” Yugyeom said with a shrug.

Bambam set his mug onto the ground before picking his phone up and scrolling through his long list of contacts. Yugyeom raised his eyebrow slightly, but didn’t say anything. Eventually Bambam found who he was looking for. He pressed ‘call’ then turned on speaker and held the phone between the two. It rang for a long moment before somebody finally answered.

“Why the fuck are you calling me so early?” Jackson’s groggy voice on the other line demanded. Bambam’s eyes widened when he looked down at the clock on his phone. 

“Eight fucking twenty-nine?” Bambam exclaimed, punching Yugyeom in the shoulder a little harder than he probably should have. Yugyeom sat up quickly and rubbed his shoulder pouting. He snatched the mug of coffee off the floor and walked out of the room with a huff. Bambam watched longingly after the coffee.

“Did you call me to ask the time?” Jackson’s morning voice growled, the threat of murder running low in his voice.

“God, no, fuck. No, Yugyeom’s just an asshole,” Bambam stammered, collecting his thoughts. “I have a proposition for you,” he continued, voice all business now despite the early hour.

“God,” Jackson groaned. “Fine, whatever, tell me your proposition.”

“While Yugie and I do make a great team, you could even say the best team that there ever was and will ever be. We’re tired of our little pond, and we’ve been thinking about ways to expand our horizons, and we think you and Markypoo just might be the ticket.” The silence on the other end of the phone would have killed a lesser man, but Bambam had no sense of self preservation.

“I swear to God,” Jackson finally said. “You woke me up ask me if Mark and I, who I would like to point out are not some sort of duo, would team up with you and Yugyeom?”

“In my defense,” Bambam replied easily, “I didn’t know what time it was.”

“That’s not a very good defense, fuckface,” Jackson grumbled. ”Aren’t you the people person? Shouldn’t you be good with your words and all?”

“I’m great with my words. I’ve even already convinced you to team up with us,” Bambam said smugly.

“Wait, you’ve done what?” Jackson asked in alarm.

“Yep,” Bambam said, as though it were obvious. “You never said no, just complained about the time that I called you, which is entirely understandable and I would like to reiterate that Yugyeom is an asshole, but the fact that you never said no is your way agreeing to my proposition. Anyway I guess I’ll see you at my place around noon then? Alright, tootles J-flawless,” Bambam said cheerily, quickly hanging up before Jackson could reply. Bambam got up off the floor with a groan and went to plug in his dying phone.

“Yugyeom,” he called into the quiet apartment, making his way out of the room, “I swear to fuck, once I find you, you better either have an entire pot of coffee made or a notarized will with all assets left to me.”

“Gotta catch me first,” Yugyeom’s cackle filled the apartment, followed by the sound of scrambling feet.

~~~~

“I’m going to kill him,” Jackson growled after locking his phone and slamming it back onto Mark’s bedside table. Mark snaked his arms around Jackson’s middle and pulled him back onto the bed.

“Don’t sit up, you’re warm,” Mark mumbled sleepily. Jackson laughed slightly before hugging Mark back. “What did he want?” Mark murmured into Jackson’s neck. 

“Well I guess that we are going over to their place at noon because I guess we partnered with them or something,” Jackson said vaguely. Mark hummed at that.

“That means we can sleep for longer,” Mark mused tiredly, curling further into Jackson’s warmth. Jackson started to poke Mark in the side, producing squirming and weak protests from the other. 

“Or we could get up now,” Jackson said teasingly, still poking Mark. “I’m hungry, make me breakfast, Markypoo,” Jackson whined teasingly, poking Mark more. 

“I’m tired though,” Mark complained, sitting up to rub at his eyes. He swatted at Jackson’s relentless hands before finally giving in. “Fine, fine, I’ll make you breakfast,” Mark said resignedly, reluctantly unattaching himself from Jackson before swinging his feet onto the cold ground and standing

“I can’t believe you’re making me make you breakfast right now,” Mark mumbled, crossing his arms tightly around his thin chest. “It’s so cold,” he whined loudly, kicking the ground.

“Put on a hoodie,” Jackson laughed, “and I’m not making you, you’re doing it because you love me,” he grinned, standing, making his way to the kitchen and dragging Mark with him.

“These claims are unfounded,” Mark murmured, allowing himself to be dragged to his kitchen by Jackson. 

“What are you going to make me anyway?” Jackson stopped, jumping to sit on the counter, swinging his feet slightly. Mark hummed noncommittally, opening fridge. The inside of it was barren save for a bottle of ketchup. 

“I could make…” Mark trailed off, staring into his empty fridge. Closing it, he turned back around to Jackson. “I could make coffee?” Jackson smiled.

“Coffee sounds good,” Jackson said, hopping off the counter. “Need any help?” Mark laughed brightly, walking over to the coffee maker.

“I think I can handle making some coffee on my own,” Mark laughed. “But if you want sugar or milk or anything you’re out of luck in that department.” 

“Mark,” Jackson said with a frown. “You have a job, why don’t you have any food?”

“Eh,” Mark said shrugging, “I’m not here very often,” he lied unconvincingly. Mark continued busying himself with the coffeemaker, not looking back at Jackson. Jackson continued to frown at Mark, not replying for a long moment, the only sounds in the kitchen coming from the coffee maker that Mark stood watching. 

“Mark,” Jackson sighed. “That’s not--” he was cut off by the sound of his phone ringing. Jackson sighed and made his way back to Mark’s bedroom to answer his phone. 

The call was from an unknown number and Jackson hesitated before finally answering. He didn’t say anything into the phone, waiting for the caller to speak first.  
“Uh…” a small, stuttery voice on the other end said. “Jackson? Um… it’s Youngjae. I can hear you breathing. Wait that sounds creepy! Uh…”

“What do you need, Youngjae,” Jackson asked flatly. He sat down on the edge of the bed, listening to Mark moving around the kitchen.

“I just wanted to check and make sure your leg was okay since you got shot…” Youngjae trailed off. “I’m sorry for bothering you,” he muttered. Jackson looked down at his leg. It hurt a lot less than it had the day before, then again, most grazes stop hurting much more quickly than a proper bullet wound.

“I’m fine,” Jackson said finally. “Thanks for calling.” He hung up the phone and walked back out to the kitchen to find Mark leaning against the counter sipping a mug of coffee.

“Who was it?” Mark asked, handing Jackson a mug. Jackson took the coffee gratefully.

“Just Youngjae calling to check in about the bullet wound and all,” Jackson replied. “Kid’s gonna make a good doctor.”

“That’s for sure,” Mark smiled softly.

“It would be nice to have someone like that around, always ready to help, but not going to send you to jail. I mean granted, they can’t send you to jail if they’re dead, but you go through a lot of doctors that way,” Jackson laughed. Mark stared at Jackson, trying to decide whether he was joking or not.

They stood in companionable silence in the kitchen each sipping their respective coffee for a while longer until they had finished the coffee in their mugs and the remaining coffee in the pot had gone cold.

“Want to head to the boy’s place? I’m bored and impatient, I want to know what they need us for,” Jackson asked, setting his now empty mug down gently on the counter.

“Why not, got nothing better to do today, let me get dressed first,” Mark said, placing their mugs into the sink.

Jackson looked down at his pants, specifically the tear the bullet and Mark’s subpar nursing skills had made. He looked up at Mark, grinning sheepishly.

“Got any extra sweatpants?” he laughed.

~~~~

When Mark and Jackson got to Yugyeom and Bambam’s apartment, they could hear what sounded like screams of agony coming from inside. They exchanged worried looks before Jackson raised his hand to loudly knock against the door. The screams stopped and Mark and Jackson heard the scurrying of feet and loud whispers shared between the boys. Something along the lines of “straighten your shirt, they’ll think I was making out with you instead of murdering you.”

Finally, a disheveled Bambam threw open the door with a wide grin plastered on his face. Yugyeom stood behind him, muttering something to himself as he attempted to fix his hair.

“Hello gentlemen,” he bowed dramatically, gesturing into the apartment. Yugyeom rolled his eyes at Bambam before turning around and stalking back into their home. 

Mark and Jackson hesitantly walked into the apartment. It looked like a storm had ravaged the place, the furniture was skewed and there were various smaller things all over the floor. 

Yugyeom had settled himself cross-legged on the couch, laptop perched on his knees by the time that the others had made it the rest of the way into the apartment.

“So why’d you call us here?” Jackson asked, plopping onto the other couch cramped into the boys small living room. Bambam sat on the opposite end of the couch Yugyeom was on, swinging his feet up so they were resting directly on top of Yugyeom’s keyboard. Yugyeom sighed and lifted his laptop, placing it on top of Bambam’s feet.

“Like I said over the phone,” Bambam began, gesturing for Mark to have a seat beside Jackson, “we’re tired of changing grades for rich brats, there are bigger and better things Yugie and I want, and you two are just who we need to get there.”

“And what is it exactly that you want, because from what I can tell all you really know how to do is talk to people,” Jackson said, crossing his arms. 

“Listen, I do a lot fucking more than that, just you wait,” Bambam spat at Jackson, quickly running a hand through his tangled hair. “I just know we can do better,” he stated firmly.

“How exactly do you expect us to help you with that?” Mark asked, looking uncomfortable with the subject matter. 

“Our ground team,” Bambam said proudly. “Yugie and I will work as your all seeing, God-like eyes and you two will conduct a super cool hiesty-hiest with your guns and knives.”

“That sounds super fun and all to be your little puppets, but you have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jackson snarled. “You don’t know how this works, and you can’t be an arrogant bitch who is only in it for the benefits for half the team,” Jackson finished sharply.

“We know how to manipulate the backstage details better than anybody else in Seoul,” Yugyeom defended, his voice at a low growl as he looked up from his laptop to glare at Jackson. Bambam pulled his legs off of Yugyeom’s lap and sat up properly on the couch, resting his elbows on his knees to watch Jackson and Mark.

“Just because you know how to work the behind the scenes doesn’t mean you can pretend to know how to choreograph an entire operation,” Jackson said, leaning back. Bambam opened his mouth to refute him but was interrupted by Mark.

“Listen, I know you all think you know everything about everything, but you don’t. You two,” Mark said focusing on Bambam and Yugyeom. “You may know how to hack computers and talk to people, but that’s nothing compared to the amount of research you have to do to properly plan a heist. And you,” he turned towards Jackson. “You may be the big and bad J-Flawless, but don’t pretend you know how to play nice with others,” Mark huffed before leaning back against the couch.

“Alright then, what do you suggest we do, smart guy?” Bambam drawled, a look of almost boredom across his face.

“If you want to do this right, you have to call someone who’s done this before,” Mark said irritably, pulling his phone out of his pocket and dialing.


	10. Young and Rich

A knock rang through the quiet apartment, both Jackson and Bambam were sulking on their respective couches while Yugyeom’s fingers were flying across his keyboard and Mark was fiddling with his phone. 

“Come in,” Yugyeom yelled, not looking up from his laptop. The door swung open and Jinyoung walked inside, looking annoyed. 

“Alright,” Jinyoung said walking into the living room. “Do you guys have any semblance of an idea of what you are doing?” Jinyoung crossed his arms and stood in the middle of the living room, eyes scanning over each of the boys. Bambam had sunk low into the couch with his arms crossed, legs again thrown over Yugyeom’s lap. Jackson had slouched into the other couch, a scowl across his face. Mark and Yugyeom both look unamused, focused on their respective devices.

“No,” Yugyeom replied shortly, not looking up from his computer. “We don’t, which is why we called, but J-flawless over there and Bamie here won’t admit that.” Both Bambam and Jackson glared at Yugyeom.

“We wouldn’t have had to call him if Jackson wasn’t so uncooperative,” Bambam mumbled, scowling. Yugyeom smacked Bambam’s leg, shooting him a warning look to be quiet. Bambam pouted and sank further into the couch.

“Shut up and listen to me,” Jinyoung said, cutting off Jackson before he could respond. “I’d like to start off by saying that you are all clueless. You guys,” Jinyoung gestured toward Bambam and Yugyeom, “have no idea what it means to be on the ground. And you guys,” Jinyoung gestured at Mark and Jackson, “have no idea how to work the intelligence aspect of the job or how to make a strategic plan that doesn’t involve leaving massive amounts of carnage or getting yourself shot. Now that that has been said, if you would all kindly stop sulking and at least pretend to act like adults, we can start planning.” Yugyeom raised his hand sheepishly to get Jinyoung’s attention. “Yes Yugyeom,” Jinyoung said exasperated. 

“I think I’ve found a good place to hit,” he said, turning his laptop to face Jinyoung. Jinyoung looked down at it, cocking his head to the side as he studied it for a second.

“You want to hit…  a house?” Jinyoung asked in confusion, still looking at the computer screen. Yugyeom turned his computer back around, and Bambam sat up, adjusting himself so that he was leaning on Yugyeom’s shoulder and could see the computer. 

“It may just look like a house,” Yugyeom said, a slight grin on his face, “but it’s more than that,” he paused for dramatic effect, “it’s the home of one of the richest CEOs in the country.” Mark, Jackson, and Jinyoung’s eyes all widened and Bambam smiled, patting Yugyeom on the back. 

“You can’t expect me to tell you that that is a good idea, can you?” Jinyoung asked skeptically.

“Nope,” Bambam said casually, still grinning. “We just expect you to help us plan the hit.”

“It’s your funeral,” Jinyoung said, shrugging slightly.

“But it’ll be a fancy funeral,” Bambam laughed. “So, how do we do this?” 

“So a house… I probably won’t be of much use for you there,” Mark said hopefully, calling the attention of the room to himself. “Not many tall buildings conducive for sniping.” Mark bit his lip, watching Jinyoung hopefully.

“We can’t send Jackson in alone,” Jinyoung replied. “Don’t make dumb suggestions.” Mark deflated and Jackson rested a hand lightly on his knee. Jinyoung sat down on the only remaining chair in the living room and looked between the four.

“Alright,” he said leaning forward on his knees. “Let’s get planning.”

~~~~

The com in Bambam’s ear crackled to life as he began to walk up to the door of the massive house before him.

“Alright, Bammie,” Yugyeom’s tinny voice said into his ear, “just stick to the script or somewhere near it and you’ll be fine. And remember, don’t let them go back inside until you get the signal. Also, please be safe. This guy is massively rich and we know what kind of security and reinforcements he has, which is a lot. Please, for the love of God,  _ please _ don’t start making things up. For once in your life stay on track with the prearranged script,” he rambled in Bambam’s ear. Bambam smiled softly before straightening the hat on his head and raising his free hand to knock. After a moment, the door swung open and a man stood in the entryway, an annoyed look on his face.

“May I interest you in some Girl scout cookies?” Bambam’s face was plastered with the most angelic smile he could muster as he held up a box of Thin Mints.

“Bambam that is  _ not _ the script!” Yugyeom screamed in his ear. “And where the  _ hell _ did you get those cookies?!” The man that had opened the door gave Bambam an inquisitive look.

“I thought girl scouts sold girl scout cookies,” he said finally, still watching Bambam. Bambam let his smile fall just enough to look sincere. 

“You’re good,” Yugyeom said abruptly in his ear. Bambam ignored the comment, assuming it as a message for the others.

“Well they do, unless she’s sick and force their angelic older brother to sell them for her,” Bambam said, his innocent smile returning to his lips. “She really wants to get that bike because our family has always been too poor to afford anything fancy like that,” he said, sobering as he spun the tale. “All of her friends have always had them, but she’s always been excluded from their games. It would mean the world to her if she were able to finally get her bike,” he finished the story by wiping a tear from his cheek. The man who had answered the door was now watching Bambam in alarm.

“I’m so offended that you’ve never mention your younger sister to me,” Yugyeom laughed gently in his ear. Bambam bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at Yugyeom’s comment. 

“Okay,” Yugyeom said suddenly to him. “They’re in. Just keep doing what you’re best at for a little bit longer then get out of there before they notice anything.” 

Bambam beamed up at the man and started back into his sales pitch

~~~~

Jackson and Mark crept along the side of the house, sticking as close to the shadows in the bright afternoon sunlight that they could get.

“Bambam that is  _ not  _ the script!” Yugyeom was screaming loudly in their ears, scaring the pair as they rounded the corner onto the back patio of the house. Jackson sighed and irritably pulled the earpiece out mumbling something about how he hated working with children.

“Yugyeom, is it clear for us to go in?” Mark asked, looking over at the door that they were to enter.

“You’re good,” Yugyeom replied, the sound of typing filling the background. “Cameras are down and security system is offline. Just don’t be stupid and it shouldn’t be a problem.” 

“Just make sure not to break anything,” Jinyoung said. “That’ll surely get you guys caught. Keep an eye on your surroundings at all times, you never know who could sneak up on you.”

“Jinyoung,” Mark said placatingly as he and Jackson began to sneak into the house. “This isn’t the first job we’ve had.” Jackson gave him a confused look before he opened the door for them both to step into the house. 

“I know,” Jinyoung said. “Just be careful.” Mark and Jackson crept into the brightly lit room that overlooked the spacious backyard.

“Okay they’re in. Just keep doing what you’re best at for a little bit longer then get out of there before they notice anything,” Mark heard Yugyeom say to Bambam.

Mark and Jackson stuck close to the walls as they snuck through the house, avoiding long hallways and open rooms. The route they had planned beforehand was a long loop around the ground floor, but it kept them near hiding places in case something went wrong. 

Finally, they reached the staircase, the only problem being that the staircase was directly behind the opened front door where Bambam was distracting the owner of the hose. Mark and Jackson tiptoed up the stairs, staying close to the walls to avoid making too much noise.

At the top, they followed a long, quiet hallway until the room that Yugyeom had said was the CEO’s office. Mark slipped into the massive study, sneaking over to the oversized oak desk situated in the corner of the room. Tucked nicely under the desk was a strong, electric safe. Mark crouched down in front of it as Jackson stood by the door, knife poised in case the CEO decided he had had enough of Bambam and came back inside.

“It’s 486037,” Yugyeom said.

“How-” Mark started to ask while typing in the code given to him before Yugyeom suddenly cut him off. 

“His files aren’t exactly the most secured. Getting into the security was a piece of cake, and from there I had access to everything,” Yugyeom laughed. The safe opened with a mechanical whir. Mark stared into the safe in disbelief for a moment.

“Were we expecting any drugs?” he finally asked, staring at the several pounds of cocaine along with a couple thousand dollars in cash. 

“Yes, now would you please just take it,” Yugyeom said to him. “I don’t know how much longer I can listen to Bambam talk about his imaginary little sister and the importance of bikes to growing children.”

Mark shoveled the money and bricks of cocaine into his backpack before standing and kicking the safe shut and walking away. Before leaving the room, he exchanged a silent look with Jackson. Jackson nodded and they snuck back into the still hall.

“Thanks for stopping by, and tell your little sister that I hope she gets well soon,” the CEO’s irritated voice wafted up the stairs toward them. Jackson froze, pressing himself and Mark into the wall; he held a finger to his lips, turning his head to the side to listen to the sound of the door closing followed by footsteps, which were seemingly going away from the stairs.

“You guys need to get the fuck out of there,” Jinyoung’s voice said into Mark’s ear. “Right. Now.” Mark tensed under Jackson’s hand that was still pressing him into the wall. Jackson looked at him curiously, neither making any noise. 

“He’s in the kitchen right now, if you are quiet and run once you get outside, you can probably leave through the front door,” Yugyeom’s voice had lost its usual playful tone. 

Mark bit his lip, looking from Jackson to the stairs and then back. Jackson seemed to understand what he was trying to say and they both silently made their way to the stairs, ears straining to hear any sounds of the CEO leaving the kitchen. The world seemed to move at a snail’s pace as they held their breath and edged down the stairs. Once they were on the stairs, there was no turning back or hiding. It was a straight, but entirely vulnerable, path to the front door. They were nearly to the bottom of the stairs when a step groaned under Jackson’s boot. Both of them froze, Mark tensing as he watched Jackson who was intently listening for any indication that the CEO had heard the sound of intruders in his home. 

They stood like that for a several seconds before Jackson waved for them to continue forward. Upon reaching the bottom of the steps, they softly ran forward through the wide entryway, and to the door.

They paused, again listening for sounds of motion. Mark looked at Jackson before placing his hand on the doorknob and twisting slowly. He froze for a moment once the knob had twisted all the way, looking at Jackson again. Slowly, he pulled on the door, opening it just enough for the two to slid in between. Once outside Mark began the process of closing the door softly. When Mark finally let go of the handle, they let themselves breath again before casually walking down the sidewalk. Mark fidgeted with the straps of his backpack, tightening and loosening them as he matched pace with Jackson as they continued walking.

“Good job boys,” Yugyeom congratulated as Bambam pulled up in a car in front of them, and they climbed in. Mark deposited the backpack onto the floor of the backseat where Jackson was sitting before wiping his hands on his pants.

“Not bad I guess for a first heist,” Jinyoung said nonchalantly.

“Shut up, you know we were great,” Bambam giggled.

“You entirely failed at keeping the target preoccupied while Mark and I were inside,” Jackson said flatly to Bambam.

“You guys made it out, we got what we went in for, and I sold some cookies,” Bambam said turning and punching Jackson’s knee slightly.

“Where did you even get those cookies?” Yugyeom asked Bambam over the com as he began to drive out of the neighborhood.

“I don’t just have connections in the criminal world,” Bambam said slyly.

“I don’t even want to know why you have connections in the girl scouts,” Mark said, leaning his head back onto the headrest and closing his eyes. 

“Honestly doesn’t surprise me,” Jackson said, unzipping the backpack at his feet to look at the stuff they had taken from the safe, rifling through the money and the drugs tucked into the bag.

“Hey, quick question,” Mark said suddenly, opening his eyes “What are we going to do with the drugs?”

“Leave that to us, my precious sniper,” Bambam said dismissively, speeding down the streets back toward his apartment. “Like I said, I have connections everywhere. If you know somebody, I probably also know that person. Max one person removed. Anyway, the point is, you leave those drugs to us, sweet Mark.”

“Please don’t do the drugs,” Mark said urgently, watching Bambam with wide eyes. Bambam just rolled his eyes as they pulled back up to the apartment building.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so it begins...


	11. Possessive Much

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're back boiz with some angst :)

The mid-afternoon sunlight streamed lazily through the slightly parted drapes into Jaebum’s otherwise dark room. With a groan, he rolled away from the sun and buried his face into the pillow. The door quietly edged open and Youngjae poked his head into the room.

“You awake?” he asked softly. The only response he received was a weak groan as Jaebum burrowed further into his bed. 

With a glass of water and a bottle of pills, Youngjae crept into the room. He placed the water and medicine on the nearby table, before gently sitting on the edge of Jaebum’s bed. He reached over and brushed the stray hairs off of his brother’s forehead, running his fingers gently through Jaebum’s hair to coax him out of sleep.

“I brought you some painkillers, you should take them. They’ll make you feel better,” Youngjae said softly when Jaebum stirred. When he received nothing but another groan in response, he gripped the hair he was still holding and sharply yanked. 

“What the fuck,” Jaebum groaned, sitting up slowly to glare sleepily at his brother.

“Are you feeling any better?” Youngjae asked with a satisfied grin as he looked over his brother’s drowsy form. 

“I was until you pulled on my hair,” he sighed, rubbing at his scalp. Youngjae just smiled brightly at him and handed him the water and pills.

“Take these and drink the water,” Youngjae instructed sweetly. “You’ll feel better.”

Jaebum put the pill in his mouth, tossing it back with some water before finishing the glass and handing the cup back to Youngjae. He fell back onto the bed mumbling about pain in his head along with the pain in his side.

“Is the wound still hurting you?” Youngjae asked in concern as he started to fuss over Jaebum. 

“I’m fine, don’t worry so much,” he grinned slightly at Youngjae. “I should be taking care of you, not the other way around.” He reached up and ruffled Youngjae’s hair like he used to when Youngjae was younger.

Youngjae laughed, the sound filling the small room, as he laid down, resting his head on Jaebum’s chest. Jaebum carded his fingers through Youngjae’s hair, looking down at him fondly. For a moment, he forgot the situation that had gotten him here, forgot the money problems, forgot Mr. Park, and appreciated this quiet time with Youngjae. It was rare to have a moment like this in the brothers’ apartment anymore with Youngjae always busy in school and Jaebum working, so he cherished these moments dearly.

They laid like this for a while longer, Youngjae listening to the steady beat of Jaebum’s heart and Jaebum gently petting Youngjae’s hair, the only sound in the room coming from their breathing. 

It occurred to Jaebum suddenly just how quiet it was in the rest of the apartment.

“Hey, Sunshine?” Jaebum asked, pushing Youngjae’s hair back so that he could see his eyes. 

“Yeah?” Youngjae lifted his head to look at Jaebum.

“Where’s Jinyoung?” he asked. He was fairly certain that Jinyoung wouldn’t have just left in the early morning, at least not without saying something to him first. The fact that he wasn’t around was unsettling to Jaebum. 

“He headed out a couple of hours ago,” Youngjae said with a shrug, sitting all the way up to look at Jaebum properly. “I think he was on the phone with Mark before he left.”

“Mark?” Jaebum asked in surprise. “Do you know why?” Youngjae simply shook his head, watching Jaebum curiously. 

“Why are you so concerned about it?” Youngjae questioned. 

“He doesn’t usually just leave without a word unless he’s doing something dumb,” Jaebum said matter-of-factly, moving to sit up. “And if Mark’s involved that probably means that Jackson is involved which means it’s probably moronic.” He swung his legs over the side of the bed to stand up. Youngjae grabbed his shoulders to stop him.

“Where are you going?” Youngjae frowned, holding him firmly in place.

“Just going out to find where my friend is,” Jaebum said stubbornly, shaking off Youngjae’s hold. 

“At least try to call him, for all you know he just went home,” Youngjae suggested, Jaebum grimaced before grabbing his phone off the table and began dialing Jinyoung.

With each ring, Jaebum grew angrier. When the call went to voicemail, he slammed the end call button and threw the phone across the room causing Youngjae to jump as it crashed into the wall. Jaebum growled, clutching at his bandaged side for a moment before making his way out of the room

“Wait!” Youngjae called out after him, noticing the blood oozing through the bandage. He shot up off the bed and ran after Jaebum.

Jaebum was pacing in the kitchen, one hand raking through his hair in frustration and the other holding the now bloodied bandage.

“You reopened your wound,” Youngjae said, staring at Jaebum. “You need to calm down before you hurt yourself more.” Jaebum rounded on Youngjae, slamming his hand into the counter, causing Youngjae to take a step back in alarm. 

“What I need to do, is find Jinyoung before he gets himself shot, too,” Jaebum growled, his fists clenching and unclenching at his sides. He slammed his fist down on the counter again before collapsing on to the floor with a sharp gasp of pain. Youngjae was immediately at his side, hands moving over the blood-soaked bandage on Jaebum’s torso. 

“I told you to calm down,” Youngjae chastised, looking Jaebum up and down. “Can you move at all?” He asked, looking down uncertainly at the dressing. 

“I’m fine,” Jaebum ground out through clenched teeth, waving Youngjae away as he reached down to look at the covering. “It’s just a little bit of blood. What’s important right now is finding Jinyoung.” 

“What’s important now, is making sure you’re okay,” Youngjae said placatingly. “Jinyoung can take care of himself, so let me take care of you for once in my life,” Youngjae said hopefully.

Standing, Youngjae disappeared into the living room, returning a moment later with some fresh bandages. He sat down again next to Jaebum on the floor. Unwrapping the dirty wrappings, he looked at the reopened bullet wound in Jaebum’s side.

“You made it bigger,” Youngjae tsked. “You also ripped out all of your stitches,” Youngjae continued to reprimand Jaebum. He stood and made his way back to the bathroom to retrieve the first aid kit again. When he came back, Jaebum had moved so that he was sitting up with his back pressed against the cabinets, arms crossed while he sulked.

“You’re going to get blood all over the kitchen,” Youngjae scolded, sitting down next to Jaebum. “I need you to lay back down so that I can fix your stitches, grandpa.” Jaebum weakly swatted at Youngjae, glaring, before laying back down on the floor. Youngjae sets to work restitching the wound. Jaebum flinched every time the needle popped through his skin. When Youngjae finished, he smoothed a new bandage over Jaebum’s side. 

“Now don’t reopen it,” Youngjae said, sitting back on his heels to look at Jaebum. Just then, the front door opened with a soft click and both brothers’ eyes shot toward the source of the noise. Youngjae sent Jaebum a sharp look before standing up.

“ _ I’ll _ go see who it is,  _ you _ stay here,” he warned, making his way out of the room, the weak protests of Jaebum following him. 

Youngjae made his way to the front door, rounding the corner and freezing as his eyes settled on their visitor.

“You’ve caused Jaebum a lot grief this afternoon,” Youngjae said scowling and crossing his arms. “Stitches twice in two days isn’t a pleasant experience.” Panic flashed across Jinyoung’s face at Youngjae’s words.

“What happened? Is he alright?” Jinyoung asked urgently, rushing forward to make his way to Jaebum. Youngjae stopped him, his normal bright demeanor anything but. 

“You better have a really good reason for not answering his calls, Park,” Youngjae said coldly, forcing Jinyoung to stand in the entryway a while longer before finally letting Jinyoung pass.

“Who was it?” Jaebum’s strained voice called from the kitchen.

At the call, Jinyoung quickly followed the sound of his voice to find Jaebum laying in the middle of the kitchen floor. Fresh bandages around his torso and large dark circles under his eyes.

“Bum,” he said softly, dropping down next to Jaebum. Jaebum glared at Jinyoung, attempting to sit up before Youngjae ran in and forced him to lay back down.

“Don’t make him rip his stitches again,” Youngjae said pointedly at Jinyoung. Jinyoung made a dismissive noise, turning his attention back to Jaebum.

“You ran off this morning,” Jaebum said, coolly regarding Jinyoung from where he lay on the floor.

“Didn’t think you’d wake up before I got back,” Jinyoung said, looking Jaebum over in concern. 

“Couldn’t be bothered to leave a note or send a text or answer your damn phone?”

“I was… preoccupied?” Jinyoung shifted uncomfortably, his phone heavy in his pocket.

“With what?” Jaebum demanded, again attempting to sit up only to have Youngjae stop him. 

“The others needed some help with something,” Jinyoung said nonchalantly. Jaebum glared daggers at him, clenching his fists at his sides. 

“Care to share with the class?” Jaebum asked lowly, watching as Jinyoung shifted uncomfortably under his scrutinizing glare.

“They wanted to pull a small heist,” Jinyoung said weakly, “but they needed some help.” Jaebum shot upright before Youngjae could stop him, leaning close to Jinyoung. Youngjae’s protests ignored by both of them.

“You did a job without me?” Jaebum’s voice was cold and level.

“I didn’t think it would be a big deal, I was mostly babysitting anyway,” Jinyoung’s voice matching Jaebum’s in intensity.

“A job is a job,” Jaebum glowered. “We made a promise, never work alone, and always work together.”

“I wasn’t even technically the one doing the job, I just told them what to do,” Jinyoung shot back.

“Doesn’t matter, you broke the promise,” Jaebum said icily, letting the statement hang in the air for a minute. “Get the  _ fuck  _ out of my home,” Jaebum spat finally, watching Jinyoung with a challenge in his eyes.

The mask of anger on Jinyoung’s face broke for a moment, but he quickly stood, turning away from the brothers sitting together on the floor. He paused for a moment, almost hoping for an invitation from one of them to tell him not to go; when it never came, he left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might be the last update for a bit because our impending doom in the form of finals is coming soon, we'll be back some time after 15th :) 
> 
> good luck to everyone else on their finals <3


	12. Kiss and Makeup Already

Jaebum was going stir-crazy. It had been a few weeks since he had gotten himself shot and Youngjae hadn’t allowed him to leave the apartment much at all in that time. Not that he had wanted to because he didn’t have anywhere to go because he and Jinyoung still weren’t on speaking terms. This was making him even crazier.

He had spent most of the day pacing the apartment. Every once in awhile he would wander into Youngjae’s room and pester him as he studied, only leaving when Youngjae looked annoyed enough to strangle him.

“Youngjae,” he said loudly as he threw his brother’s door open. Youngjae sighed loudly, slammed his textbook shut, and turned to face Jaebum.

“My beloved brother,” Youngjae said with false cheer. “How can I help you this time. The third time this hour, I should point out.”

“I’m bored and you won’t me leave, therefore it’s your job to entertain me,” Jaebum grinned smugly.

“I am  _ studying _ ,” Youngjae groaned, falling dramatically over the back of his chair. “Do you want to be a med school drop out? After everything you’ve done to pay for it?” Jaebum glared at Youngjae, pouting at his brother. Youngjae grinned at his reaction and turned back to his studying.

“The least you could do is give me the OK to leave the house,” Jaebum huffed, crossing his arms. 

“Fine whatever,” Youngjae said offhandedly, not looking up from his textbook. “You could have left like a week ago you know.” Jaebum whined loudly like a sad puppy, betrayed by his own brother.

“And you didn’t bother telling me this a week ago,” he complained. Youngjae shrugged and when Jaebum didn’t leave his room he sighed and turned to face him again.

“Where would you have gone?” he asked pointedly. “Nowhere. You and Jinyoung are fighting.” After a moment of thought he added, “actually you probably would have gone off and done something stupid.” He turned back around, determined to ignore Jaebum this time. 

“Listen, it’s not my fault that Jinyoung broke our promise. He made that choice himself, and he knew what the consequences would be,” Jaebum huffed.

“It may be his fault, but both of you are _so_ _damn petty_ and are blowing this out of proportion. Just go apologize to him instead of moping around my room while I study,” Youngjae said, resoutly not looking back at Jaebum.

“Language! Also fuck you. I’m not petty,” Jaebum muttered in annoyance. 

“Yes, you are,” Youngjae said in what he hoped was a conversation ending tone. 

“Whatever,” Jaebum stomped out of Youngjae’s room, much to Youngjae’s pleasure. He paced the house some more, chewing on his lip. Youngjae’s words kept bouncing around in his brain. Finally, he grabbed his phone and collapsed onto the couch to stare at it. 

Jinyoung’s contact stared down at him brightly from his phone as it had for most of the duration of his recovery. Not that it had been the only thing that had been open on his phone for the past four weeks or anything, sometimes Youngjae left for class and would text him, but for the most part, Jaebum just stared at his friend’s contact.

The phone suddenly buzzed to life in his hands, startling him enough that he dropped it. He scrambled to pick it up off the floor and froze when he saw the caller ID. The phone rang two more times before he finally came to his senses and answered it.

“Jinyoung,” Jaebum answered tersely, phone gripped tightly in his hand.

“I’m sorry,” Jinyoung mumbled into the phone, sounding pained as he said it.

“What did you say?” Jaebum questioned, sure that he hadn’t heard him correctly

“I said I’m sorry,” Jinyoung repeated, annoyed. “Also tell your brother that he owes me.” Jaebum cocked his head to the side, at the statement.

“Give me a second,” Jaebum said, setting the phone onto the couch, knowing that Jinyoung wouldn’t hang up. He marched down the hallway to Youngjae’s room and threw open the door again.

“What did you do?” he demanded. Youngjae looked up at him innocently.

“What ever could you be talking about?” he asked, faux innocence lacing his words.

“You called Jinyoung.”

“Am I not allowed to call Jinyoung when you guys are having a petty fight,” Youngjae pouted. “He’s basically my brother, too. Why must you deny me of the brotherly affection I  _ so  _ crave?”

“You’re not allowed to call him and make him apologize to me,” Jaebum shouted, throwing his hands up. 

“I’m allowed to talk about whatever I want with him,” Youngjae scowled, crossing his arms. “Plus, he’s the most reasonable of you two so I figured it was the better way to go.”

“You shouldn’t have called him,” Jaebum said firmly.

“ _ You _ shouldn’t have told him to leave  _ our  _ house,” Youngjae shot back. “Just hear him out and apologize while you’re at it,” he said, turning back around to his work. Jaebum left in an irritated huff and went back to his phone. As expected, Jinyoung was still there when he picked it back up.

“I’m sorry too,” Jaebum muttered, unhappy that he was apologizing. 

“That’s nice to hear,” Jinyoung replied. “Can we be done fighting now? I’m kind of over it.”

“You have no idea how bored I have been,” Jaebum agreed, falling back onto the couch. A weight, that he wasn’t even aware was present, lifted from his shoulders.

“Okay,” Jinyoung said awkwardly, “so you know how your brother calls us both petty?”

“Yeah? What about it?” Jaebum questioned.

“I may have continued working with the others since that’s what made you angry…” he trailed off. Jaebum was silent as he considered his options.

“Okay,” he finally said.

“Okay?”

“Yeah okay.” They were both silent, the only sound being their breathing.

“I want to join,” Jaebum eventually said, breaking the silence. 

“I figured you would. We are all meeting at Bambam’s later today if you want to come.”

“When?”

“I’ll pick you up.” They said their goodbyes and the call ended. Jaebum dropped his phone onto the floor and layed down on the couch. 

Youngjae puttered into the living room, an apple in hand.

“You know,” Jaebum said, glancing at him, “they say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, doc.” Youngjae blinked at him.

“You’re not funny, grandpa,” he said, taking a bite out of his apple.

“You used to love my jokes, Sunshine,” Jaebum pouted.

“I’m pretty sure that that isn’t true,” Youngjae said as he perched on the arm of the couch. 

“Whatever, at least Jinyoung pretends I’m funny,” he said pouting.

“I take it you two finally got your shit together.”

“Language,” Jaebum reprimanded.

“You curse all the time,” Youngjae sulked.

“Whatever, I have somewhere to be,” Jaebum said, standing up and moving towards the door.

~~~~

“It’s not that hard to get us the information we need. You’ve been doing it for the last couple months,” Bambam said, voice hard and professional as he talked into the phone that laid on the table in front of him and Yugyeom. 

“Yeah, but that’s because they didn’t think there was a mole in the force, but now they know. They’ll think I’m dirty!” the voice whined desperately over the speaker phone. 

“Well, I mean, that’s because you are, but that’s not our concern,” Yugyeom interrupted. Bambam hit Yugyeom’s knee slightly as a warning.

“You two know that I don’t mind doing business for you whenever I am able--”

“Then there shouldn’t be a problem here, Seungcheol,” Bambam interrupted harshly.

“If they catch me then you lose me as a resource,” Seungcheol growled.

“We can find dirty cops as easily as you find your little fuckbuddies,” Yugyeom intoned, bored. 

“You need me,” Seungcheol pleaded, growing desperate.

“Get us what we need then we’ll decide if we really need you,” Bambam said nonchalantly.

“Just give me some time. If I act now they’ll figure it out, but if I wait until it blows over I can get you more.”

“You have 3 days, Seungcheol. That’s it. Don’t disappoint,” Bambam drawled, hanging up before Seungcheol could argue.

“That went well,” Yugyeom said lightly as Bambam leaned into his side. 

“Why’s a dirty cop gotta develop a sense of moral correctness and self preservation just when we actually need some information,” Bambam whined, burying his face into Yugyeom’s shoulder. Yugyeom patted his head consolingly.

“They should be here soon,” he said, glancing at the clock. “We can tell them about what we discovered last night.”

“We’ll finally get to show them what we can do,” Bambam cackled, standing up go to the kitchen. When he came back, he had an energy drink in one hand and a coffee in the other. Yugyeom made a face at the energy drink but gratefully accepted the coffee.

“Those have so much sugar, they’re gonna kill you,” he said to Bambam, taking a sip of the coffee.

“Not if someone else does first,” Bambam said with a shrug as he threw himself back on the couch, comfortably lounging across Yugyeom.

“Don’t joke about that now that we actually do dangerous things,” Yugyeom chastised, flicking Bambam.

A knock on the door interrupted the banter between the two.

“Come in,” Bambam called out, flicking Yugyeom back. The door opened and voices floated into the apartment as Mark and Jackson made their way in. Upon reaching the living room, they settled on their normal couch.

“What’s up,” Bambam asked, twisting his head so that he could look at them without sitting up. 

“Ready for whatever important piece of information that you called this emergency meeting for,” Mark said, leaning back on the couch.

“Why’d we have to come all the way here when you could have just texted us whatever it was,” Jackson complained.

“One, you never know who could be reading your texts,” Bambam smirked, glancing at Yugyeom. “And two, that wouldn’t be nearly as fun.” Jackson scowled. The four sat together in silence awaiting Jinyoung’s arrival. Bambam had sat up so that Yugyeom could see his phone as he was continuously typing, occasionally scoffing or scowling at the device. Yugyeom watched it thoughtfully over Bambam’s shoulder. Across the room, Mark watched the duo in fascination while Jackson sulked next to him.

After what felt like an eternity, there was a short knock on the door.

“Enter,” Bambam yelled, still typing on his phone. Aside from the door opening, there was no sound of anyone coming into the apartment. When Yugyeom looked up, he saw two people standing at the entrance of the living room. 

“You brought a friend,” Yugyeom observed, causing the others to look up in curiosity.

“I gotta say, this is unexpected,” Bambam laughed, tucking his phone into his pocket. He motioned to the other chairs in the living room, indicating for Jinyoung and Jaebum to sit. When they had both found a seat, Bambam clasped his hands together in front of him dramatically.

“I’m sure that you are all wondering why I have gathered you here today,” he said theatrically.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It may be finals week still, but writing is a good way to procrastinate :)


	13. Avengers Assemble

Jackson glared at Bambam who sat in theatrical silence following his question.

“We’ve already expressed that irritation, asshole,” Jackson said sharply.

“Let me finish,” Bambam said, glaring at Jackson for a second before regaining his composure. “You all may remember Mr. Park, our friend who stole our Jaebum away from us.”

“Like I could forget, the bitch got me shot,” Jackson mumbled, glowering at Jaebum. 

“It’s not like it was my fault,” Jaebum defended himself quickly.

“Well,” Bambam continued, ignoring both of them, “my darling Yuggie here and I got our grubby little criminal hands on some information about a shipment Mr. Park is making this Friday.” Bambam grinned proudly, looking from face to face in the room.

“A shipment of what, Bambam,” Jinyoung asked with a sigh. “We know the kind of shit that Mr. Park is in and some of it is too much even for us.”

“Drugs and weapons, the high powered shit of course. Wouldn’t want to waste our time with the little leagues,” Bambam said offhandedly.

“This is turning into some sort of cliche criminals-rising-to-power thing,” Jackson groaned, dropping his head onto the back of the couch.

“Who said that was a bad thing?” Bambam grinned.

“Life isn’t some sort of drama that so nicely follows the cliche’s patterns,” Jackson said with a piercing stare. “Cliches almost always end badly in real life.”

“ _ Almost  _ always,” Bambam pointed out.

“Whether or not this is a good idea, we should at least hear out the rest of the plan so we can make an educated decision,” Jinyoung stated rationally. Yugyeom stood up and disappeared further into the apartment before returning with his laptop. The other’s watched as he opened it up and typed for a moment.

“Mr. Park’s shipment will be arriving this Friday at one of his less used warehouses just outside of the city,” Yugyeom started. “We have reliable sources that tell us that he won’t have his heavy security there for a couple of hours because on that same day on the other side of town he’s getting another shipment of…” -- he paused -- “things more important to him where he actually needs his security.”

“There will still be security,” Bambam said, continuing easily from where Yugyeom stopped. “It’ll just be a lot lighter for a couple hours. That being said, Mr. Park’s right hand man, Jaehyung, will be there overseeing the operation while Mr. Park himself will be across town at the other drop. We can’t kill Jaehyung because that’d be a death sentence on our part, but if we can get him out of there we can kill any of the others, grab as much of the merchandise as we can, and get the fuck out of there. The perfect crime,” Bambam said proudly. The room fell into a contemplative silence as the others seemed to mull over the newly acquired information.

“How much security will there be?” Jinyoung finally asked. “‘Not heavy’ doesn’t exactly mean much.”

“Mr. Park’s new recruits and street kids’ll be there along with Jaehyung, but that’s about it,” Yugyeom answered.

“So it shouldn’t be a problem for our crack team of professionals,” Bambam said cheerily.

“Okay then, here’s the plan, Jackson, Jaebum, and myself will be on infiltration,” Jinyoung started, staring thoughtfully at the wall. “Mark will keep an eye on us from above in the event that the heavy security or Mr. Park come back before we can get what we need and leave, Yugyeom can hack into the security cameras to watch and make sure everything is going to plan, or warn us if it’s not, and you,” he said gesturing at Bambam, “can keep Youngjae busy so that he doesn’t find out that Jaebum is putting himself in danger,” Jinyoung concluded with finality.

“Wait,” Bambam shouted indignantly, “I’m on babysitting duty? This was my plan!”

“Exactly,” Jinyoung said, staring at him deadpan. “That makes you all the better to make sure that Youngjae doesn’t find out anything. Plus,” Jinyoung continued, “you and Youngjae are already friends. It’d be weird for somebody like Mark, who Youngjae has never met before, to be on babysitting duty.” Bambam huffed in annoyance and slumped into the couch, crossing his arms tightly over his chest. Yugyeom looked over at him and patted his head consolingly. 

“So, now that we have some of the details, who’s in?” Yugyeom asked. There was general murmur of agreement around the room.

“Great,” Jinyoung said. “Let’s get to work.”

~~~~

A knock startled Youngjae out of the trancelike state that he was in as he stared down at the open textbook in front of him. He groggily stood up, making a displeased face at the empty coffee cup that sat on his desk. There was never enough coffee.

Making his way to the front door, he duly noted that the sun was setting. Strange, he thought, just a couple minutes ago the sun was shining brightly in the sky. When he finally got to the front door and got it open, he was a little bit less groggy but a little bit more disoriented.

“Youngjae,” Bambam cheerily greeted when the door opened. “How’s my favorite medical student in the whole wide world?” Bambam stepped past Youngjae’s confused form, letting himself into the apartment.

“Bambam? Why are you here?” Youngjae said, closing the door and turning to watch as Bambam made himself at home in the living room. 

“Didn’t think you’d want to spend your Friday night alone, holed up in your room studying,  so I came to keep you company.” Bambam smiled blindingly at Youngjae while Youngjae processed what he was being told.

“What do you mean Friday?” he asked, his brain still trying to play catch up. “It was like, Tuesday… today?”

“I mean,” Bambam stopped smiling and looked at Youngjae in concern. “It was Tuesday like 4 days ago, but it also hasn’t been Tuesday for like 4 days.”

“I guess I just got a little bit busy,” Youngjae mumbled, walking over and collapsing onto the couch next to Bambam. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes before slowly opened them to look over at Bambam who was watching him in worry. 

“Why’d you come alone?” Youngjae asked, finally noting the absence of Yugyeom. Youngjae wasn’t sure if he had ever seen the two apart.

“Is that some sort of threat?” Bambam asked in concern. 

“No,” Youngjae said quickly. “I just haven’t seen you away from Yugyeom’s side since I met you guys in high school.” He leaned his head back on the couch, closing his eyes again.

“Am I not allowed to spend time with my friends?” Bambam asked, sounding insulted.

“No, no, no, that’s not what I meant, it’s just strange,” Youngjae blushed. “I’m sorry, I’m not exactly sure how to form sentences right now.”

“Alrighty, buddy,” Bambam said standing up and going to stand in front of Youngjae. “It’s time for you to go to bed, kiddo.” Bambam held out a hand expectantly for Youngjae. 

“I can’t sleep right now, I have to wait for Jaebum to come home first,” Youngjae said, stifling a yawn. Bambam rolled his eyes muttering something about codependence issues.

“Kiddo, last you knew, it was Tuesday, so I’m just going to assume you’ve been living off caffeine since then, and as much as I relate, if you don’t sleep soon, it’s going to kill you,” Bambam said in his best teacher voice.

“I’ll be fine,” Youngjae said offhandedly. “The human body can last like 2 weeks without sleep and I’ve only been awake for about a day. Wait, what day did you say it was?”

“This just proves my point, you’re going to bed,” Bambam said, grabbing Youngjae’s arm to force him to stand and dragging him to his room. Youngjae complied a little reluctantly, but he didn’t have much energy to try and fight Bambam.

“Why did you say that you came by again?” Youngjae asked as Bambam dropped him unceremoniously in his bed. 

“Yeah,” Bambam said, going to sit at the desk. “We can talk about why I’m here when you wake up. Good night, kiddo,” Bambam said in a singsong voice, spinning lazily in the desk chair and pulling out his phone to mess with.

Youngjae wanted to argue, but it was hard to argue when he was already asleep.

~~~~

“Coasts clear,” Yugyeom’s voice came to life in the ground team’s earpieces. “I would like to stress that that doesn’t mean that you should just go in and murder, Jaehyung is still in there. Please make sure he is out  _ before _ you start to murder.” 

Jinyoung looked between Jaebum and Jackson. They were currently crouched across the street from the warehouse, concealed by the shadows cast by the setting sun and the alley that they stood in. Jinyoung gave Jaebum a meaningful look before nodding in the direction of the warehouse and falling further into the shadows. Jackson followed Jinyoung’s lead, pulling his hood over his head and shoving his hands into his pockets.

“Okay, where is he right now,” Jaebum whispered, beginning to step out of the shadows.

“He’s in the office, not too deep into the warehouse. Make sure you don’t make it obvious that you’re distracting him, and make you don’t lead him where J-Flawless and Junior are going in,” Yugyeom instructed.

“I know the plan,” Jaebum said standing and creeping out from their hiding spot. “I’m going in.” He walked casually and confidently across the street toward the warehouse. Clad in a pair of jeans and a plain grey sweatshirt, he opened the door and slipped in.

Jinyoung counted to 35 after Jaebum disappeared into the building before motioning for Jackson to follow him as they crept closer to warehouse, staying mostly concealed in the shadows. When they got near warehouse, the front door flew open and Jaebum ran out followed closely behind by Jaehyung and a couple of generic thugs.

“You’re side entrance is clear, get in and out as quickly as possible,” Yugyeom advised.

Jinyoung looked at Jackson who nodded and they made their way inside. Once they were inside, Jinyoung noticed immediately that there were no places for them to hide at all. All of the cargo had been placed in the center of the open floor plan; the corners were all brightly lit by the LED lights strung from the ceiling. 

“We’re going to have to go in guns blazing,” Jinyoung hissed.

He pulled out his gun and fired two shots into the air, standing up and walking to the center of the warehouse, followed by Jackson who had pulled two knives out of his trademark hoodie pocket.

“Alright, fuckers,” Jackson yelled as the thugs looked over at them in shock, “Come and fucking get us.”

“Subtle,” Yugyeom laughed.

There were only about 12 thugs in the warehouse, clearly Mr. Park had doubted anyone’s interest in the shipment. En masse, the thugs approached Jinyoung and Jackson, pulling out various weapons.

“Try not to get shot, J-Flawless. I’m going to to slip past, so make sure to keep them busy,” Jinyoung said grinning.

“Oh don’t worry  _ Junior,  _ they’ll be real busy,” he cackled, walking towards the thugs knives raised and a terrifying smile across his face.

“Hey there, buddy,” Jackson said to the first thug he approached, the grin still plastered on his face and a wild glint in his eyes. “You look mad. What’s wrong?” He stepped closer to him and plunged a knife directly into the thug’s heart. “Not planning to die today?”

Quickly he turned to the next goon, he swiftly kicked him in the chest, knocking him into the man behind him. Immediately he threw the blade in his hand. It landed square in the forehead of the man he had kicked. Jackson launched himself forward and pulled the knife out of the minions forehead and slashed it across the throat of the other man.

“There are so many of you,” he said whined petulantly, swinging his knife to slit the next thug’s throat. He listened as the thug fell and choked on his own blood. “I don’t even have time to leave my calling card on your disgusting, unmarred cheeks.” 

He ducked quickly as another one of the mindless minions attempted to hit him in the head with his gun. Anger flared in him as he grabbed the disgusting, sweaty shirt of the thug and pulled him close. Jackson stared hard at his face then whispered, “don’t you know not to sneak up on people?” He relished in the fear that flashed across the thugs face as he slit this throat, throwing the body carelessly to the side.

The man in front of Jackson looked terrified, but that did nothing to stop Jackson from hitting him with the hilt of one of his knives, the man stumbled back before attempting to raise his gun. 

“Really?” Jackson asked, swinging his blade into the side of the man’s head. “Like that would stop me,” he cackled.

A bullet whizzed past his head and he cursed as he darted toward the thug that had shot at him. 

“Didn’t ya mama ever teach ya not to bring a knife to a gunfight,” the thug said smugly. Jackson rolled his eyes at the line, not even bothering to look at the thug as he plunged a knife into his neck, already turning to take care of the remaining thugs. 

He could have sworn that there were more of them a second ago, but, glancing around the warehouse to ensure that none of them were hiding in one of the too well lit corners, he concluded that they must have run. He couldn’t blame them, he was honestly a terrifying force. He’d run if he saw himself coming. Before he moved on, he stooped down and marked every fallen minion with a bloody J on the cheek. 

Wiping the blood from the knives on his hoodie, he scanned the warehouse, eyes finally settling on Jinyoung who was stuffing assault rifles and drugs into one of the 4 duffle bags they had brought with them. Jackson jogged over and began to help Jinyoung fill the bags.

“I have to admit, that was a little terrifying to watch,” Yugyeom crackled to life in their ears. Jackson shrugged.

“I’m good at what I do,” Jackson said simply, not looking up from the work.

“You like it a little bit too much, too,” Jinyoung added, not looking up at Jackson.

“While I do agree, you guys should really hurry up. Jaehyung stopped looking for JB and is on his way back right now,” Yugyeom warned.

Jackson and Jinyoung zipped up the bags and each grabbed two, standing and running towards the side door where they had entered. 

“Oh JB,” Yugyeom said suddenly. “Bambam wants me to tell you that you should probably see a counselor about quote ‘this weird codependency bullshit that is happening between you and your brother’ end quote.”

“Do you really think that this is the time for this?” Jaebum panted out, the sound of a car door being slammed shut heard over the com. “Silent Shot and I are in the car in the alley.”

Jackson and Jinyoung continued running. Behind them they heard the sound of Jaehyung and his men’s surprise at the bodies littering the warehouse floor, and the open crates they had robbed. 

“Fucking find them,” Jaehyung screamed. Jinyoung and Jackson ran faster, eventually they reached the car in which Jaebum and Mark were waiting. They threw open the doors, chucking the bags in before sliding in themselves and slamming the doors shut.

“Go!” Yugyeom exclaimed when everybody had gotten into the car.

Jaebum peeled out of the alley, speeding through the back streets until they were far enough away. 

“Good work team,” Yugyeom laughed. “Bring the goods back to base, and Bambam and I will deal with it from there.”

“Um,” Mark spoke up suddenly. “So what exactly are you going to do with the many metric tons of drugs that we just stole.” Worry laced his tone as he looked back at the several bags of drugs and guns. Jackson reached up and patted his arm reassuringly, leaving some flecks of blood on his shoulder, neither noticed.

“There’s no need to worry your pretty little head,” Yugyeom dismissed as the group drove back to the apartment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think we've ever mentioned how much we love writing psychopath!jackson  
> Also we really appreciate all the comments and kudos <3  
> They keep us going haha


	14. You Said It Would Be Okay

By the time that Youngjae woke up, it was already dark outside. He looked around the room, disoriented, searching for any indication of how he had gotten into to his room. Everything slowly came into focus as Youngjae’s eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Once he could see again, he noticed a dark shadow in the corner. 

Sitting up more, he squinted at the shape, willing his eyes to identify anything about it. Eventually, he was able to make out the shape as his desk chair crammed into the corner. No memory of moving the chair there the previous night came to mind. With a groan, he pushed himself into a sitting position and swung his legs over the side of the bed with the intent of placing his chair back in the proper place. Before he stood though, he noticed a figure in the chair.

“Hello?” Youngjae called out, concern creeping into his voice.

“Morning, kiddo,” The voice responded, standing and switching on the nearby desk lamp.

The room was bathed in a soft, yellow glow, illuminating Youngjae and the figure that Youngjae could now see was Bambam.

“What are you doing in my room?” Youngjae asked, confused. Bambam, who was now grinning, just shrugged.

“How’d you sleep?” Bambam asked, sidestepping Youngjae’s question. Youngjae watched him silently, still not fully comprehending exactly what was happening.

“What are you doing here?” he asked again, this time more insistently. “And if you’re here, where’s Yugyeom? Or literally anybody else?” 

“I told you this before you went to bed, I just wanted to check up on my good friend.” Bambam threw his arm over Youngjae’s shoulder who tensed under him but didn’t remove his arm. “Also, I can’t believe that you don’t believe me, your very trustworthy friend.” Bambam placed a hand over his heart, sighing wistfully. Youngjae scoffed.

“Trustworthy is  _ not  _ a word I would use about anybody even remotely acquainted to you,” Youngjae said, “much less you yourself.” Suddenly Bambam’s phone buzzed loudly from where it rested on the table. Glancing at it, Bambam clasped Youngjae’s shoulder.

“That’s my cue to go, buddy,” Bambam said, still smiling. “Try to sleep like a normal person and I put some numbers of some family counselors on your fridge. Alright see ya!” 

“Counselors? Why do-”

“You really should just trust me,” Bambam sighed interrupting him then quickly left the apartment. 

Youngjae stood stunned for a moment before finally leaving his room and making his way into the living room.

“Jaebum?” he called into the empty apartment. He stood in the living room looking around for a minute then crossed his arms in annoyance. Of course his brother still wasn’t here, what else was he to expect. As he was about to pull out his phone to text Jaebum, the door opened and both Jaebum and Jinyoung walked through the door.

“Sunshine!” Jaebum said brightly upon seeing his brother, even Jinyoung grinned at him.

“Are either of you the reason Bambam just  _ showed up _ like some sort of babysitter?” Youngjae asked, annoyed. A look of concern flashed across Jaebum’s face before he quickly composed himself again.

“Bambam was here?” Jaebum asked, feigning innocence. 

“I’m not a moron,” Youngjae deadpanned.

“No one ever said you were,” Jinyoung answered.

“Then where were you guys and why was I being watched over like a child?” Youngjae demanded. Jaebum glanced at Jinyoung, a silent conversation quickly happening between the two before Jinyoung pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Jaebum sent him one last apologetic look before turning his attention back to Youngjae.

“We were on a job and we just wanted to make sure that you were safe and didn’t come put yourself in the wrong place or something like that,” Jaebum confessed to Youngjae. Youngjae finally dropped his arms to his side.

“Why didn’t you just tell me? You could have gotten hurt or something and I would have never known,” Youngjae asked, concern lacing his words. Jinyoung scoffed quietly.

“What would you have done, Jae,” Jinyoung asked pointedly. “It’s not like you would have known where we were anyway.”

“But I could have been prepared if you had shown up here shot again!” Youngjae shouted, stomping his foot like a child throwing a tantrum. “If I was part of the team I would know! I could be ready to help as soon as possible!” Youngjae whined, pouting. Jaebum’s expression darkened.

“No,” Jaebum and Jinyoung said in unison. 

“We told you before, it’s not happening,” Jaebum growled.

“I could help,” Youngjae insisted.

“Or you could get hurt, and I’m not going to be the one responsible for that,” Jaebum said with authority.

“You wouldn’t be, it’s my choice to join the team,” Youngjae said meekly

“It’s not happening, Sunshine,” Jaebum said with a finality, walking over and patting Youngjae’s head placatingly.  “Now how about we get some take out?”

~~~~

“So what exactly are you going to do with the drugs again?” Mark asked uncertainty as he and Jackson stood in the doorway to leave Bambam and Yugyeom’s apartment.

“We told you not to worry about it,” Yugyeom said, “we’ll take care of it, Markypoo.”

“Right,” Mark replied skeptically. “But can we both agree that you telling me not to worry about something isn’t exactly reassuring?”

“Whatever you would like to say,” Yugyeom said, going to close the door. “Bye guys! Have a safe trip home!” And with that, he closed the door with a sigh. He made his way slowly back into the living room before collapsing on the couch to wait for Bambam to get home.

Yugyeom fiddled with his phone for what felt like an eternity before he finally heard the sounds of a key in the door. Yugyeom shot up, running to the door like an excited puppy. As soon as it swung open, he pulled Bambam into a tight hug burying his face in the crook of his neck.

“I missed you,” he mumbled. Bambam laughed, wrapping his arms tightly around Yugyeom.

“I missed you too, Yugie,” Bambam said, shuffling them forward a bit so that he could close the door. “Ready to go soon?” Yugyeom pulled away and looked at him.

“Are you sure about this?” Yugyeom shifted back and forth on the ball of his feet.

“Of course! It’ll be fine. I mean, we have done it before,” Bambam said offhandedly

“Yeah, once,” Yugyeom replied pointedly.

“And it went great that time! I don’t know what other reassurance you need,” Bambam said, lightly pushing Yugyeom’s shoulder. 

“Okay,” Yugyeom grinned.

“How much did we get anyway?” Bambam asked, walking further into the apartment.

“I don’t know,” Yugyeom said following. “A few kilos? Probably? We can weigh it, but either way it’ll be a lot of money.” Bambam only nodded, going in search of the drugs as Yugyeom fell back onto the couch to watch Bambam.

When he found the bag of drugs, he lifted the bricks of white powder out to inspect them, humming contemplatively. 

“I already called a car,” Yugyeom said as he watched Bambam inspect the drugs. “It’ll be here soon.”

“Okay,” Bambam said, grabbing the bag. “I’m going to go weigh this before we go. Who are we selling to?”

“Kim’s crew,” Yugyeom replied, resting his cheek on the back of the couch.

“Great!” Bambam said cheerily as he walked out of the room. “They don’t know good shit when they see it. We can hike the price up.” He left the room only to come back a moment later with a wide grin plastered on his face. 

“How much do we have?” Yugyeom asked curiously.

“Five kilos,” Bambam said dropping the bag onto the floor. “We can probably charge somewhere around 175K for that.” Yugyeom hummed in acknowledgment, still watching Bambam fondly. Suddenly, his phone started buzzing on the table. With a sigh, he pushed himself off the couch to check it.

“Car’s here,” Yugyeom said, sliding his phone into his pocket. He walked over to the coat closet and pulled out his jacket and two guns. 

“Let’s go,” Bambam said with a grin, picking up the bag and handing it to Yugyeom, and taking one of the guns.

~~~~

“Kim!” Bambam said cheerily to a burly man sitting behind a desk as they walked into the dingy backroom of a video store. “So good to see you again!”

“Cut the shit, kid,” the burly man, Kim, said. “Do you have the stuff?”

“I’m just being friendly,” Bambam said shortly, “but yes of course I do.” Bambam guestered to Yugyeom standing behind him with his hand hovering over the gun conspicuously in his waistband.

“Well?” Kim said impatiently. Bambam rolled his eyes then glanced at Yugyeom. Yugyeom stepped forward, wearing an out of character but intimidating scowl. He threw the bag onto the ground in front of the desk. One of the other men in the room stooped and pulled it open causing Kim whisted lowly upon seeing it

“Five kilos,” Bambam said smugly. “200 for it.” Kim’s eyes snapped up to look at Bambam.

“Like fuck I’m paying you 200 for this. It’s worth probably 150. Do you even know who you’re dealing with kid?” Kim growled

“I do, but I don’t think you know who you’re dealing with,” Bambam sang smugly.

Bambam pulled a file out of his coat and tossed it onto Kim’s desk, as he did so, a few papers slid out. The man scoffed before opening the folder. His eyes widened as he read the pages.

“How did you get this?” Kim asked tersely.

“Oh, you know, we just have a source or two. We also have some friends in the force that will do just about anything for us, including sliding this file under the chief's door,” Bambam grinned. “If you want us to keep your secrets to ourselves, I suggest you pay the 200.”

“Look,” Kim said, closing the file and setting it to the side of the desk. “I don’t have 200 right now.”

“We aren’t unreasonable people. If you don’t have the 200 I can bump it down to 190.”

“I don’t have 190 either, kid,” Kim said, growing angry. “I told ya’ 150 and 150 is what I can pay.”

“I can go down as low as 175 and no lower,” Bambam said. “Unless you want us to take our product elsewhere, I suggest you pay it.”

“Fine,” Kim said, resigned. “175.” He gestured to one of the other men in the room who went to a safe and pulled out several stacks of money. Bambam nodded at Yugyeom who kicked the bag closer and stepped back, waiting for their money. They were handed the bag, and Bambam glanced into it.

“Know that if the full amount isn’t here,” Bambam met Kim’s eyes, unwavering, “it won’t be my problem who gets their hands on that file there.” Zipping the bag, Bambam handed it to Yugyeom.

“Pleasure doing business with you,” Bambam said brightly, turning to leave. Just then, there was a clamor from the front of the shop. Yugyeom grabbed Bambam’s arm and pulled him back away from the door.

“What the fuck?” Kim mumbled, gesturing for one of his men to go out and check what was happening. “I swear to Christ,” Kim said lowly, directing his attention to Bambam and Yugyeom, “if this is the work of you twerps, I will not hesitate to shoot both of you right here.” Despite the situation, Bambam looked calm.

“This wasn’t us,” Bambam said levely. “We prefer not resort to viole-”

The door burst open before Bambam could finish his sentence, and Yugyeom slammed both of them back against the wall, moving to crouch behind a nearby filing cabinet. Immediately gunshots deafened the room.

“What the fuck?!” Yugyeom said urgently. 

“I don’t know, we have to get out of here now,” Bambam said quickly. Bambam pulled the gun out of his waistband smoothly, unlocking the safety. He guestered at Yugyeom to do the same. The gun felt strange in Yugyeom’s hands.  Bambam nodded at Yugyeom and they started the make their way toward the door, attempting to remain unseen. 

“Fuckers think you can get out of here?” a voice growled behind them. Before Bambam could turn to shoot the voice, a gun shot rang out. Yugyeom’s scream followed the gunshot causing Bambam’s blood to run cold. He had turned just in time to see Yugyeom struggle to raise his weapon before the man in front of him slammed the butt of his pistol into Yugyeom’s skull. Yugyeom crumbled to the ground, unconscious, as blood leaked from his shoulder. 

All Bambam could see was red. His brain didn’t comprehend the obscenities he was shouting as he raised his gun and immediately emptied his clip into the man that shot Yugyeom. Moving toward the deceased gunman, he discarded his weapon and grabbed the one off of the body. 

Bambam turned to the room at large, taking in the scene that ravaged before him. Kim’s crew were either dead, running, or hiding while the rival crew rampaged the place, shooting any of the remaining crew members they could find. Leveling his newly acquired weapon, Bambam began to shoot the other men. Shooting each and every one of the rival crew with deadly precision. His face remained cold and indifferent, red hot anger pounding through his veins, as he shot down the remaining thugs. 

The ringing of gunshots stopped and Bambam realized the sheer amount of dead bodies in the small room. It took a few moments for his mind to catch up and for him to launch himself across the room at Yugyeom’s form crumpled on the ground. He lifted Yugyeom’s head into his lap, carding his fingers gently through his hair.

“Yugie, please wake up,” he begged as tears began gently rolling down his face. “All the bad men are gone, you’re safe now.” Yugyeom’s body remained lifeless and unmoving. Bambam buried his head into Yugyeom’s chest, crying as he gripped the fabric of his shirt.

Bambam sat up quickly and fumbled with his jacket pocket, eventually pulling out his phone, his hands shaking as he did so. With trembling fingers, Bambam scrolled through his contacts, eventually finding the name he was looking for. Lifting it up to his ear, he waited for the ringing to stop. 

“I need your help,” he whispered unsteadily into the phone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long, that's what happens when Nel and I have winter break and spend all of it not thinking. Anyway, we wanted to write badass Yugbam, so yakno, this happened lol.  
> Sorry not sorry.
> 
> This chapter also goes out as a late birthday present to our biggest fan from Germany <3


	15. Is That a Dare?

Yugyeom laid across the couch in the living room of Youngjae’s apartment while Youngjae was bent over his unconscious body, muttering to himself while he worked on him. Bambam sat a few feet away on the floor, cradling a mug of coffee that had gotten cold while he stared at the couch. Jaebum and Jinyoung sat across from him on the only other small couch in the living room. 

Distantly, he heard them asking him questions, but he couldn’t bring himself to listen to them or respond.

“Bambam?” Jinyoung asked for probably the fifth time. “Can you hear us, buddy?” Jaebum sat by his side quietly looking on in worry.

Bambam finally looked up, a blank expression on his face. He nodded slightly, slowly bringing the mug to his lips and taking a small sip before setting it on the ground.

“What happened to you guys?” Jinyoung questioned. Jaebum watched Bambam closely.

“He was shot,” Bambam replied quietly, looking back at Yugyeom’s unconscious form. It was unsettling to hear him speak so softly.

Jinyoung got up from his seat on the couch and crossed the small distance between Bambam and himself. He sat down next to Bambam and placed a gentle hand on his knee. Bambam didn’t seem to notice the contact, his attention solely on Yugyeom. 

“Bam, we know that,” Jinyoung comforted. “How did it happen though?”

“I…He was shot,” Bambam repeated quieter this time. Jinyoung watched as Bambam began to absently pick at the skin around his nails. When blood began to bead to the surface, Jinyoung gently placed a hand atop Bambam’s before returning the mug to Bambam’s hands who accepted it absently.

Jinyoung shared a look of concern with Jaebum.

“All done,” Youngjae said, turning around the face the rest of the room. Bambam perked up immediately, dropping the mug as he ran over to be beside Yugyeom, coffee splattering against the floor, the couch, and a disgruntled Jinyoung. 

He knelt beside the couch, gently running his fingers through Yugyeom’s hair. He buried his face in Yugyeom’s chest, shoulders shaking with sobs, moving his hands to clutch Yugyeom’s shirt. Beneath him, Yugyeom stirred slightly. Bambam felt a weak hand placed gently atop his head and looked up to see Yugyeom looking down at him.

“Kunpimook,” he whispered, threading his fingers through Bambam’s hair. “Don’t cry, you’re making my shirt all wet.”

“I told you not to call me that,” Bambam sniffed. “You’re just going to make me cry harder.” Yugyeom rested his hand on Bambam’s cheek, softly wiping away the tears with his thumb.

“Yugyeom,” Youngjae said softly, coming over to stand beside the couch. “How much does it hurt?” Yugyeom jumped slightly, hissing in pain when he did. Youngjae’s eye widened considerably.

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he stammered out as Bambam glared up at him. Yugyeom patted Bambam’s forehead to calm him and looked back at Youngjae.

“It’s pretty bad, doc,” Yugyeom said, still patting Bambam on the forehead. “I was  _ shot  _ after all.”

“Okay, I’m going to give you some painkillers that are going to knock you out,” Youngjae said, offering him some pills and a glass of water. Bambam held the glass as Yugyeom placed the pills in his mouth, he then wiggled his hand under Yugyeom’s head and lifted it up gently, placing the glass to Yugyeom’s lips he tipped it back slightly so Yugyeom could drink.

After Yugyeom was done, Bambam set the glass on the table. Interlocking their fingers, Bambam leaned his head on Yugyeom’s chest.

“I’m glad you’re not dead,” Bambam whispered. Yugyeom laughed softly, squeezing Bambam’s hand lightly.

“Me too, Bammie.”

Youngjae stepped away from the two and motioned for Jaebum and Jinyoung to follow him into the kitchen. One they had all gotten there, Youngjae crossed his arms and glared pointedly at both Jaebum and Jinyoung.

“See?!” he whisper-shouted so as not to disturb the two in the living room. “You definitely need me on your team!” 

“This was an isolated ev-” Jinyoung started.

“Don’t even try to tell me that,” Youngjae deadpanned, cutting him off. “This was not an isolated event. In fact, this is the  _ second  _ time that I have stitched up a bullet wound on that couch.”

“Look, Sunshine,” Jaebum said, rubbing his temples. “I’m not letting you join the team and that is the end of the conversation. Hell,” he said, dropping his hands to his sides, “there’s barely a team to join.” 

“But there are 6 of you morons running off to where other people that don’t like you have guns,” Youngjae said, annoyed. “And none of the previously mentioned 6 morons know how to treat a bullet wound or do anything more than minor first aid. I refuse to stand by and watch as you are all killed off by a bullet lodged into some vital organ or sepsis or something dumb like that. You know fucking well that I am not going to sit on my hands and study while you all get yourselves killed.”

Jaebum dropped his head into his hands, squeezing his eyes shut while Youngjae stared hard at him. Finally, he lifted his head, running his hands through his hair with a sigh.

“Fine,” he said. “Fine you can join the team. But I swear, if you get hurt you are not going to be on the team anymore and you aren’t allowed to ask to be on it again.” Youngjae beamed at Jaebum and pulled his brother into a quick, tight hug before releasing him.

“Deal,” he exclaimed.

“Not to ruin the moment or anything, but we should probably find out why that lanky idiot got shot in the first place,” Jinyoung said, gesturing to the living room. 

The three made their way back. They were met by the sight of Yugyeom asleep on the couch with Bambam sitting on the floor next to him with his head leaning on the side of the couch and their hands were clasped tightly together, while Bambam quietly snored.

“He’s been through a lot, we probably shouldn’t wake him up yet,” Jinyoung said.

“We’ll ask them about it when they wake up,” Jaebum said with a sigh, looking at the two sleeping boys.

~~~~

(The Next Night)

 

“So we each got our share from the heist, right?” Jackson asked suddenly, turning to Mark who was sitting on the other side of the couch, legs crossed as a played with his phone.

“I don’t like where this is going, but yes,” Mark answered setting his phone aside, a skeptical look across his face.

“How about a date?” Jackson asked, grinning.

“Jackson,” Mark replied, confused, “we aren’t dating.” Jackson leaned across the couch to punch Mark’s shoulder gently. Mark yelped in indignance, slapping Jackson’s hand away while pouting.

“Silly Markypoo, we don’t have to be dating to go on a date,” Jackson paused. “It can just be the beginning.” He winked.

“Wait,” Mark said, waving his hands around wildly. “Lemme just make sure that I understand what you are asking of me. You’re asking me out on a date? Like a first date? Like you are asking me to date you?”

“Is it really that hard to understand?” Jackson smiled softly. Mark laughed and slapped Jackson’s shoulder again.

“Yes, it is because that would require you to understand real life human emotions,” Mark said, still hitting Jackson. Jackson captured Mark’s hand between his and looked at him in amusement.

“Just because I’m an assassin doesn’t mean that I don’t understand emotions, I just know when to turn them off. It’s what makes me such a good killer.” Mark made a face at him.

“You just know how to turn into a psychopath. How romantic,” Mark said, his voice deadpan. 

“Hey!” Jackson said, offended. “I can be a very romantic person.” Mark grinned at him, moving to straddle his lap .

“Prove it then,” he challenged quietly, pressing his arms into the back of the couch so that their faces were close together and tilting his head to the side as a small grin tugged on his lips. Jackson’s hands grabbed Mark’s waist to steady them. 

“Let me take you on a date,” Jackson said. “I can show you just how romantic I can be.” Mark looked at him for a long moment before sitting back.

“I am sitting on your lap right now and you still want us to go out?” he asked in disbelief. Jackson laughed at his expression.

“It wouldn’t be very romantic of me to just fuck you right here now would it? Dinner first,” Jackson said, a coy grin on his lips. Mark groaned dropping his head onto Jackson’s chest.

“You’re unbelievable,” he said into the fabric of Jackson’s shirt. Jackson laughed again, patting Mark’s back consolingly. Mark sighed in resignation, sitting up and climbing off of Jackson’s lap. He stood up and began to walk back towards his room to change.

“Wear something sexy,” Jackson called out as Mark disappeared into his bedroom. When Mark came back out, he looked down at Jackson who was still lounging comfortably on his couch.

“Is this why you showed up in  _ that _ ?” Mark questioned, gesturing to Jackson’s skin tight skinny jeans paired with a plain black shirt and a leather jacket. “Honestly, I should have noticed earlier considering you normally just wear sweatpants.” Jackson just winked before looking down at what Mark was wearing, a pair of skinny jeans and a flowy white silk shirt.

“You look good, Markypoo,” he said, pushing himself up to stand. Grabbing Mark’s hand and linking their fingers together before heading for the door. 

“Where are we going?” Mark asked cautiously, trailing behind Jackson. Jackson glanced back at him, a mischievous look in his eyes.

“Someplace fun,” he said before pulling Mark to his side and leaving the apartment.

~~~~

“I hate this,” Mark said, crossing his arms and pouting at Jackson. The loud music from the dancefloor forcing him to shout to be heard. Jackson had taken them to a packed and loud club and Mark was having the opposite of fun. They had retreated to a relatively empty corner of the club

“How about a drink, then we’ll see how much you hate it,” Jackson grinned, pulling Mark along as he stepped up to the bar and waved down the bartender to order them alcohol. Mark scowled at Jackson from where he leaned against the bar.

“I don’t want alcohol,” he said shortly. Jackson pouted.

“Well, I already ordered two drinks, so I’ll just have to drink them both,” he laughed.

“Can we leave after?” Mark asked, desperation slipping into his voice. 

“But we just got here, Markypoo,” Jackson whined, picking up one of the shots off the bar and downing it.

“Please,” Mark begged.

“If you give me those puppy eyes, you know that I’m going to have to say yes,” Jackson sighed. He took the other shot before turning and grabbing Mark’s hand again. “Okay, let’s go then,” he said, flashing Mark a grin.

Jackson weaved them through the crowd that they had fought through to get to the bar in the first place, sending sharp glares at anyone who didn’t move out of the way as soon as he wanted them to. Once outside again Mark breathed a sigh of relief, glad to be away from the large crowd of swarming bodies. 

Suddenly, Jackson was tugging on Mark’s hand again leading them down the street in a direction that Mark was unfamiliar with.

“Are you actually going to tell me where we’re going this time?” Mark asked, allowing himself to be led.

“Why would I ruin the surprise?” Jackson asked, smiling. 

“Because when you said ‘someplace fun’, it was the complete opposite,” Mark replied unhappily.

“I promise you’ll like where we’re going this time, just trust me,” Jackson said sincerely. Mark didn’t replied, just nodded and let Jackson tug him down the street. 

Eventually they came to a sprawling, empty park and Jackson slowed their pace to a leisurely stroll.

“Better?” Jackson asked softly, pulling Mark closer to his side.

“Better,” Mark confirmed, squeezing Jackson’s hand in his. He smiled at Jackson’s dark silhouette in the moonlight.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It seems that we have a general plan for the story now, what a concept   
> Also it's so fitting for Markson to go on a date based on a challenge haha  
> Hope you enjoy <3


	16. Happy Families

“So do you want to tell us what happened now,” was the first thing that Bambam heard when he opened his eyes to the dimly lit living room. He blinked several times, trying to figure out where he was and who was talking to him.

“Wha…” he asked, scrubbing his hands over his face. Finally, he sat up and properly looked around. That’s right, Youngjae’s apartment. He looked behind him and saw that Yugyeom was still soundly sleeping. Bambam turned the to take in the rest of the room.

Jinyoung and Jaebum were seated on the other couch. Youngjae was in front of him, holding out a mug for Bambam who took it, gratefully taking a sip before clasping both hands around it.

“So…?” Jaebum prompted, giving him a searching look from across the room. Bambam blinked a couple of times at him.

“So?” Bambam asked back, taking another small sip from his mug. 

“What did you do to get Yugyeom shot?” Jinyoung asked directly

“ _ I _ did  _ not _ get him shot,” Bambam growled, his knuckles going white around the mug.

“Regardless of who got him shot,” Jinyoung said easily, “the fact that he was shot remains. Now, how did it happen?” Both Jinyoung and Jaebum were giving Bambam a deeply assessing look that unnerved him.

“We went to deal with the merchandise that we got from the job, just like we always do, and somebody decided it was time to start a gang war,” Bambam said vaguely, setting down the mug gently on the floor beside him. 

“So Yugyeom didn’t get shot because you were running your mouth?” Jinyoung asked, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow. 

In a blink of an eye Bambam was across the room, his fist colliding with Jinyoung’s face hard before anyone could do anything to stop him. They were all in shock as Bambam stalked back across the room, dropping onto the floor in front of the couch where Yugyeom was beginning to stir. 

“What the fuck, Bambam?!” Jaebum shouted as Jinyoung gingerly touched his now split lip, fingers coming back with blood on them. Bambam said nothing in response, only sending a deadly glare at them from where he sat. 

“What just happened?” Yugyeom sleepily asked. Bambam’s head whipped around to look at him in worry, beginning to fuss over him.

“Bambam just punched Jinyoung in the face,” Youngjae said, sounding shocked as he look back and forth between the two parties.

“Your boyfriend’s got a mean punch,” Jinyoung grumbled unhappily, being ignored by everybody but Jaebum who only scoffed.

“Yugie, how do you feel?” Bambam asked softly as he continued to worry over Yugyeom. Yugyeom gently swatted his hands away, turning his attention to the rest of the room.

“Since I know Bambam won’t tell me why he decked Jinyoung in the face,” Yugyeom said, finally capturing Bambam’s restless hands in his own to still them, “would someone else care to?” 

“I…” Jaebum started, then stopped. “Actually I have no idea what happened,” he finally finished, sounding perplexed. Jinyoung grumbled something unintelligible from where he sulked next to him. Yugyeom raised an eyebrow at him, prompting him to speak up.

“All I asked was if Bambam not knowing how to keep his mouth shut was what go you shot,” Jinyoung grumbled loud enough to be heard. Yugyeom’s eyes widen considerably as he quickly grabbed ahold of Bambam’s wrists to keep him from throwing himself back at Jinyoung. A string of rapid-fire Thai flew out of Bambam’s mouth causing Yugyeom to roll his eyes while the other three stared at him in confusion.

“Bammie,” Yugyeom said soothingly, still clutching his wrists as Bambam glared daggers at Jinyoung. “Please calm down.” Bambam huffed, eventually stopping and falling onto the floor again to lean against the couch.

“Was I supposed to understand that?” Youngjae asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Unless you’re fluent in Thai, probably not,” Yugyeom said, chuckling softly as he petted Bambam’s head who still looked like he was trying to summon death unto Jinyoung.

“Alright…” Jaebum said after a stretch of silence. “Will you tell us why you were shot then?” he asked, directing his question to Yugyeom.

“Business deal gone wrong,” Yugyeom replied simply. “Doesn’t matter who the buying party was, wasn’t their doing. The attacking party, on the other hand, looked like Yang’s guys because pretty sure it was Seungri who shot me.” Jaebum hummed at this information, sitting back and crossing his arms.

“We can’t let them think that they can just get away with shooting one of us,” he said decisively. 

“Wait, who’s ‘us’?” Yugyeom asked confused. “Also it was  _ definitely  _ the other guys they were going after.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jaebum said brushing him off. “They shot you and they saw your face so they need to know to not do it again.”

“I don’t think that it matters that they saw my face,” Yugyeom muttered, glancing down at the still sulking Bambam.  

“Doesn’t matter!” Jaebum all but shouted. “We need to get Jackson and Mark here to discuss this further.” He pulled out his phone and dialed Mark’s number. The phone rang several times before Mark finally answered. 

“What do you want?” Mark asked, sounding annoyed.

“It’s Jaebum,” Jaebum said simply.

“Yes, I know,” Mark huffed. “Are you going to tell me why you called?”

“Come to my apartment, and bring Jackson, there’s something we need to talk about,” Jaebum directed.

“Is it so important that we need to come right at this very moment?” Mark asked, still irritated. Distantly in the background he heard Jackson ask what they were needed for.

“Just please come,” Jaebum pleaded.

“Alright fine, we’ll be over soon,” Mark hung up.

~~~~

“So wait,” Jackson asked after Jaebum finished explaining the situation. “You want us to go after  _ who _ ?”

“Yang and his crew,” Jaebum replied simply. They were all seated around the small living room in the apartment. Yugyeom had sat up (much to Bambam’s displeasure) with Bambam situated between his knees. Mark was perched on the arm of the couch, leaning onto Jackson’s shoulder who was seated on the couch properly.

“You do realize that Yang is one of the three guys who more or less rule this city, right?” Jackson asked incredulously. 

“I do,” Jaebum said with a nod, “and I’ve been thinking: we’ve formed a kind of team here, and we might as well try and do something with it, instead of just small jobs,” Jaebum said leadingly.

“So you want us to go from the little jobs that we have been doing to attacking Yang?” Jackson asked in disbelief.

“Yes. Now stop asking dumb questions,” Jaebum said, shutting Jackson up.

“I know some kids that might be able to help us out,” Bambam said, finally speaking up for the first time after attacking Jinyoung. Jaebum shared a look with Jinyoung then shrugged.

“Alright,” Jaebum said, “let’s go.”

~~~~

“You need help attacking  _ who _ ,” the boy with grey hair in front of them asked in disbelief.

“We know it sounds insane, Chan,” Bambam agreed, “but it wasn’t our idea, it was this one’s.” He gestured at Jaebum who sat between Bambam and Jinyoung surveying the rest of the room. Mark and Jackson loomed behind them. Across the table, the nine boys were squished together. Only six seats remained at the table, so three of the boys were sitting in three other laps.

“How do you expect us to help you?” the boy with a sharp face seated directly on Chan’s left asked around the boy with ginger hair and freckles sprinkled across his face.

“We just need you to get us some information,” Bambam said, paying no mind the the human blockade between him and the person he was talking to.

“And that’s it?” the boy to the right of Chan with round cheeks asked, sounding hesitant.

“No,” Jaebum interjected, still looking in disbelief at the ragtag group of teenagers seated before him. “We’re also going to need you to do some petty crime in Yang’s territory.” 

“You know,” Bambam elaborated when Chan raised an eyebrow in inquiry, “graffiti, rob some convenience stores, harass some of Yang’s guys. Nothing you guys haven’t done before and nothing that would look out of place for a bunch of delinquent teenagers.”

“Jisung? Changbin?” Chan said, glancing at the boy on his right then the boy on his left.

“As long as it’s nothing more than we’ve already been doing,” the one on the right -- Jisung -- said with a quick glance at a baby faced boy seated on a tired looking boy’s lap.

“Sounds like a fun time,” the one on the left -- Changbin -- said with a nod. “What do the rest of you think?” Changbin asked. There was a general murmur of agreement that rose out of the rest of the people around the table.

“Before we agree to terms or whatever,” Mark suddenly interrupted. “How old are you.” He pointed to the baby faced boy that Jisung had looked at earlier. 

“I’ll be seventeen soon,” the boy answered quietly, confused at suddenly being addressed. Mark’s eyes widened as he looked rapidly back and forth between Jackson and the shocked kid. 

“And it’s your choice to be here? Nobody coerced you? You aren’t repaying some sort of debt?” Mark asked, concern apparent in his voice.

“Yes,” he answered, his voice growing smaller yet. Mark turned to Chan.

“You better take good care of him,” he said lowly, leaving the apartment, a bewildered Jackson trailing after him. 

“The fuck was that?” Changbin asked confused.

“Language,” Chan reprimanded, pinching Changbin’s arm as Changbin smacked weakly at his hand. Bambam, Jinyoung, and Jaebum looked between each other, just as confused as the rest of them.

“So,” Bambam said finally. “Terms.”

~~~~

Back at Youngjae’s apartment, Yugyeom sat sullenly on the couch with his laptop propped on his lap. Youngjae had sat himself cross-legged at the end of the coffee table, textbooks spread out before him.

“Would you stop glaring at your computer like that?” he asked suddenly. “It’s starting to scare me.”

“I’m not glaring at my computer,” Yugyeom said, stabbing the enter key. He was working on getting as much information as he could on Yang’s guys while the others had left to talk to Bambam’s friends.

“Yes you are and it’s really distracted,” Youngjae said with a sigh, setting down the pen he was holding.

“Sorry,” Yugyeom muttered, closing the laptop in resignation. They sat in silence for a while, Yugyeom staring ahead at the wall and Youngjae staring blankly at his textbook. “Can I ask you something?” 

“What’s up?” Youngjae asked, snapping his eyes to Yugyeom who continued to stare resoutly at the wall.

“Aren’t you worried about Jaebum?” Yugyeom asked, voice a controlled neutral. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Aren’t you worried he’s going to get hurt?” he clarified. Youngjae sighed in understanding.

“Of course I am, he’s my brother, but I know that he can take care of himself. Plus, if worst comes to worst, I can help him,” Youngjae said, a bittersweet smile across his face. They sat in silence for a minute before Youngjae spoke again.

“Is this about Bambam?” he asked, giving Yugyeom a knowing look. Yugyeom’s careful composure broke as he looked over at Youngjae.

“Yeah,” Yugyeom scrubbed at his face with his hands. “I just got shot and I know it fucked with Bambam a lot, but I don’t even want to imagine how I would feel if he got hurt or worse…” Yugyeom trailed off. Youngjae stood up and sat down beside Yugyeom, pulling him into a loose hug. Yugyeom leaned gratefully into the affection.

“Bambam can take care of himself,” Youngjae said consolingly, rubbing Yugyeom’s back. “Not to mention you have me, a top notch medical student, in case something does go wrong,” Youngjae joked, poking Yugyeom gently in the side. Yugyeom huffed a laugh and leaned back.

“Yeah I guess so.” Yugyeom reached forward and grabbed his laptop, settling back against Youngjae who put his arm loosely around the other’s shoulder, settling in himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what happens when Nel and I watch Stray Kids and get attached to Chan's boys ^^
> 
> Also we reorganized the room and got a chance to christen it with a nice lil chapter


	17. Running Errands

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we're really sorry that this took so long, but thank you to anyone who is still reading.. we are not going to abandon this story <33 we promise
> 
> anyway hope you enjoy  
> There's a short Stray Kids scene in this chapter (stan talent stan stray kids)
> 
> (again thanks for waiting)

Mark walked swiftly down the hallway back toward the parking lot. Distantly, he heard footsteps following him and a voice calling his name, but he refused to pay it any mind. 

“Mark wait up,” Jackson yelled again, catching up to Mark and grabbing his shoulder. Mark shrugged him off but stopped walking anyway. They stood in silence for a while, Mark watching his feet and Jackson watching Mark, until Jackson finally spoke again.

“What was that all about?” he asked sounding confused.

“Kids shouldn’t be in this business. You know what happened to me,” he said, still staring down at the floor. 

“It may hit close to home for you, but that kid made his own decisions,” Jackson said, placing his hand under Mark’s chin and lifting his face to look him in the eye. 

“I was just making sure,” Mark said quietly, averting his gaze. 

“I think you scared Chan half to death with how you were talking to him,” Jackson said grinning.

“He should be scared,” Mark said seriously, finally looking Jackson in the eye. “He should be scared for the life and wellbeing of that child.”

“I’m sure he is,” Jackson consoled. “From what Bambam told us, Chan cares about those kids like their his own. Plus, it’s not like he actively recruiting kids, he only takes in the ones that come to him first.” Mark stared at him for a while longer before closing his eyes with a sigh.

“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah you’re right.” Jackson placed his hand on Mark’s cheek who leaned into the touch graciously.

“You’re cute when you get all worried,” Jackson teased, chuckling softly when Mark opened his eyes to glare at him. Jackson leaned in and placed a kiss gently onto the tip of Mark’s nose, causing Mark to laugh lightly and swat at him.

“Gay,” Bambam’s voice echoed down the hallway towards them as he walked away from the apartment. 

~~~~

Jeongin smiled sweetly at the man working at the register as he wandered into the convenience store conveniently located in the middle of Yang’s territory. Slowly, he made his way to the back of the store, glancing around at Felix, Hyunjin, Seungmin, and Jisung scattered across the aisles. When he made eye contact with Jisung, he was given a slight nod. 

He made his way back to the front of the store, the gun in his waistband a cold weight against the small of his back.

“How can I help you young man?” the worker asked politely as Jeongin smiled up at him.

“Just need you to fill this bag with all the money in the register,” Jeongin said cutely, smile growing at the confused look he was given as he placed the empty backpack he had been wearing on the counter. From behind him he heard a laugh muffled as a cough from one of the other four. 

The man continued to stare at the backpack in confusion, making no move to put any money into it. Sighing, Jeongin pulled the gun from his waistband, carelessly waiving it in the direction of the cashier.

“I would appreciate it if you hurried it up a bit. I have friends that I’m meeting,” Jeongin grinned. The cashier’s eyes widened considerably at the sight of the weapon. His fingers shook as he went to open the drawer, pulling out the money and putting it into the bag. 

Jeongin heard somebody step up behind him. An arm was thrown around his shoulder and when he glanced over to see who it was, a beaming Jisung stood beside him.

“This kid is just my pride and joy,” Jisung bragged to the cashier and he ruffled Jeongin’s hair, causing Jeongin to blush. Hyunjin and Seungmin laughed as they made their way out of the store, each holding a can of black spray paint. Outside, they began to spray paint a heptagon with a seven and a star inside, the symbol that Bambam had sketched and given to Chan to leave as a message from his crew.

The cashier finished filling the bag with the meager amount of money in the drawer, and handed it back to Jeongin.

“Thanks,” Jeongin chirped, smiling brightly at him then turning on his heel to leave the store with Jisung following him back out, still grinning proudly at Jeongin.

Once back outside, they went around the side of the store where Chan was leaning against the wall waiting for them.

“Everything went just as we planned, Channie,” Jisung said proudly. “This kid gets better every time we bring him out.” Chan looked between the four of them in approval before his eyes widened in realization.

“Where’s Felix?” he exclaimed, his voice laced with worry.

“I’m right here,” Felix’s deep voice called out as he rounded the corner. When he finally came into view, his face was completely obscured by the giant teddy bear in his arms. Hyunjin and Seungmin started giggling at the sight while Jisung, Chan, and Jeongin stared in wide-eyed shock.

“Felix! What are you doing?” Chan demanded, massaging his temple in frustration as he watched Felix.

“It was just sitting in there, plus the cashier had run to the back, I couldn’t just  _ not  _ steal it,” he grinned.

“That’s your defense?” Chan cried out. Felix shrugged, holding the plush tighter.

“Mom, I don’t really think there’s much time to scold him,” Hyunjin interrupted, still giggling. “That cashier definitely went to the back to call the cops.”

“I’m not your Mom,” Chan snapped without any real bite, motioning for the boys to follow him back to their apartment.

~~~~ 

“Okay, so here’s the plan,” Bambam said turning Yugyeom’s laptop around to face the room where all of the others had spread themselves out. Plans were outlined neatly on half of the screen while a blueprint was displayed on the other half. 

“Who died and put you in charge,” Jackson muttered from the corner where he was sulking. Mark rolled his eyes and placed a calming hand on Jackson’s shoulder.

“Shut up Jackson,” Bambam said dismissively, turning his attention back to explaining the plans. “Kim Hanbin, one of Yang’s higher ups, has this really nice house, and I’m talking really nice, so nice that Yang likes to meet with all his minions and make plans at this nice house. I mean  _ really _ nice-”

“We get it, Bambam,” Jaebum irritably cut in. He was ignored by Bambam who continued talking.

“We’re gonna break in, steal some of said plans and anything shiny that catches our eyes from this  _ nice  _ house, and you know...” Bambam paused dramatically, making eye contact with each of them. “Murder Hanbin.”

A grin ghosted Jackson’s face at the mention of murder and Mark rolled his eyes dramatically, punching him lightly in the arm. Jinyoung, who had been nodding along with Bambam’s plan paused and glanced at Youngjae who had gone entirely ridged at the mention of murder. Jaebum noticed Youngjae’s pale and rigid appearance and moved closer to him, putting his arm around Youngjae’s shoulders and pulling him tightly into his side.

“Murder him?” Jinyoung asked, keeping his tone level as he turned his attention back to Bambam. “Why do we have to murder him?”

“You gotta crack a few eggs to cook up an omelet,” Bambam said theatrically, causing Yugyeom to roll his eyes.

“What he’s trying to say,” Yugyeom said with an exasperated sigh, “is that if we want to gain territory, we have to take it by force. That usually involves killing anybody that gets in the way.”

“Well I guess when you put it that way,” Mark mumbled, shrugging.

“Alright so when is this murder happening,” Jackson asked, redirecting the line of conversation back to the matter at hand.

~~~~

“Please be careful,” Bambam said over the com as Yugyeom and Mark snuck around the mansion. “You never know what kind of security personnel could be wandering around.”

“We’ll be careful,” Yugyeom whispered placatingly. “Plus Mark’s here if things happens to go to shit.” Mark shot him a look but didn’t comment.

They continued to sneak through the open yard, sticking close to the house for any sort of cover. Finally, they reached the place where Yugyeom could plug into the house’s security system. 

“We made it,” he whispered, opening his laptop and beginning to bring down the system.

“Remind me again why you had to go there in person,” Bambam asked, sounding anxious.

“It’s not connected to any sort of wireless connection, Bam,” Yugyeom whispered distracted. “We’ve been over this.”

“I know…” he sighed. “I just…” he trailed off. There was a beat of silence where Yugyeom focused on the comlex security system and Mark kept watch.

“Don’t get shot,” Bambam whispered finally before everything fell into a tense silence. After what felt like ages of Yugyeom working, he finally sighed and closed his laptop, hurriedly packing everything away.

“It’s down,” he whispered, standing up. “It’ll be down fo-” he was suddenly cut off when three large figures walked around the corner and immediately spotted him and Mark.

“What the fuck?” one of them asked as the other two drew their weapons and trained them on Mark and Yugyeom.

“We may have trouble,” Mark said, raising his own weapon. Yugyeom slowly set his bag down, raising his hands amicably, a small grin on his lips.

“We do  _ not  _ have trouble everything is perfectly fine and we’ll be out real soon,” Yugyeom said lowly. “Bambam for the love of God stay in the van.”  Yugyeom quickly switched off his com, motioning for Mark to do the same.

“Step away from the system,” The one in the middle, not pointing a gun at them, growled.

“Hey, we’re all friends here, there’s no need to get shooty,” Yugyeom laughed tensely, taking a step away from his bag and the security system. Yugyeom looked at them assessingly. The two who flanked Mr. Growling-Commands seemed pretty green, but Mr. Growl himself looked like he’d been in the business a while.

“What should we do, Junhoe,” the one on the right whispered, keeping his gun wavering between Mark and Yugyeom. He looked like he didn’t know who he wanted to threaten.

“Ah Junhoe,” Yugyeom said cheerily. “I’m Yugyeom, it’s great to meet you!” He stepped forward, his right hand extended for Junhoe to shake.

“Don’t come any closer,” the one on the left said lowly, his gun aimed steadily at Yugyeom’s chest.

“You know if you shoot me in the chest that’s, not a definitive kill,” Yugyeom said matter of factly, looking pointedly at Left. He took another step forward, not breaking eye contact with him. Mark stood behind Yugyeom, watching carefully, gun raised.

“I said don’t come any closer,” Left said quickly, sounding desperate for Yugyeom to be intimidated by him. Yugyeom raised both hands above his head again.

“Relax,” he said casually. “I’m not even armed.” Before anyone could react, Yugyeom launched himself at Left, striking the elbow of his extended arm, snatching the gun from his hand, and pulling him into a choke hold. Placing the gun against Left’s temple, Yugyeom smirked at the other two.

“But I am now,” he laughed. Mark stared wide-eyed at him. Junhoe snarled at Yugyeom, pulling a gun out of his own holster and pointing it at him.

“You know,” Yugyeom began, taking a small step forward with Left. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

When Junhoe didn’t lower his weapon, Yugyeom let out a long suffering sigh before, in the same motion, shooting Left in the head and kicking him into Junhoe. He turned and shot Right in the head while Junhoe was occupied with the corpse that had just been thrown at him. In the blink of an eye, Yugyeom had managed get around behind Junhoe and press his gun into the base of his skull. 

“I told you not to do it,” Yugyeom whispered lowly before pulling the trigger and watching Junhoe’s body fall to the ground.

Yugyeom walked back to his bag, picking it up and slinging it over his shoulder before turning his ear piece back on.

“What the actual fuck, Yugyeom,” Mark gawked. Yugyeom just grinned at him, wiping the blood off his hands onto his shirt.

“Yugyeom!” Bambam shouted in Yugyeom’s ear, causing him to flinch. “What the fuck?! Why did you just turn off your com?!”

“Bammie, I’m fine,” Yugyeom said, motioning for Mark to follow him as they made their way out of the yard. “Did the other’s go in? The security is only down for a little bit.”

“Yeah, they went as soon as you said security was down,” Bambam responded, worry still lacing his words.

“How much longer do we have?” Jinyoung’s voice crackled over the system. Yugyeom checked his watch as he opened the door to the van and climbed in.

“About 10 minutes, so hurry,” Yugyeom said before being tackled by a hug from Bambam.

“Are either of you hurt?” Youngjae asked, eyes scanning them both as Mark climbed in and closed the door behind him. “Where did all of this blood come from?”

“No, we’re alright, thanks to Yugyeom apparently being a master at hand to hand combat,” Mark laughed mirthlessly. “Since when did you know how to do that? I thought you two just did small jobs from your apartment?”

“Yeah, but we’ve always had big plans,” Bambam winked, still latched onto Yugyeom.

“And those plans include…?” Mark asked quizzically. Suddenly the coms came to life with noise.

“Guys,” Jaebum’s voice said frantically. “We may have a minor problem.”

“Everything is  _ fine _ ,” Jackson’s voice immediately interjected before they were cut off by a flurry of sound and gunshots.

 


	18. Don’t Talk to Me or My Son Ever Again

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry in advance <3

“Bambam should have known how many people would be here. Why the  _ fuck _ didn’t he know how many people were going to be here,” Jinyoung mumbled angrily to himself as bullets flew over the table he had knocked over for cover. Across the room, Jaebum and Jackson were crouched behind a sofa.

“Mr. Yang won’t be happy to know that people were trying to kill off his men,” one of them shouted, voice annoyingly loud to be heard over the gunfire. Jinyoung gritted his teeth and popped up, quickly firing several rounds before falling back into cover. He was running out of bullets and desperately hoped that Jackson could handle the rest of the men.

“Cover him,” Jinyoung heard Jaebum say. When he looked over at them, he saw Jackson leap over the couch, his knife clutched tightly in his fist. 

“Finally come out t-” the closest one started, not even getting a chance to finish his sentence before Jackson had slashed his throat open. Blood splattered and painted the floor as the man choked on his own blood.

“What the fuck?” the annoying voice shouted, quickly changing his aim from the table Jinyoung was hiding behind, to shoot at an incoming Jackson. Jackson was quick to grab the barrel of the gun, wrenching it towards the ceiling before he could be shot.

“Yeah what the fuck,” Jackson echoed, stabbing his knife viciously into the other man’s neck. “None of you were supposed to even be here.” He continued to stab the man’s neck until a bullet flew past him, a hair too close for comfort. 

The last henchman standing between Jackson and the room that Hanbin was hiding in, was shockingly short in Jackson’s opinion. 

“Aren’t you a little small to be a criminal?” Jackson scoffed, adjusting his grip on his knife as he stalked forward, intent on the kill. The man growled lowly, causing Jackson to laugh again. “At least you being short means you’re less of a cliche.” 

Jackson could see the anger consume the short man’s entire body. Dropping the gun from his hand, the short man pulled a knife out from his boot.

“Can’t bring a gun to a knife fight,” Jackson said smugly, readying himself to attack. The man lunged so suddenly at Jackson that he barely had time to dodge. Jackson was suddenly aware of the reason that these guys were Yang’s closest men. The strike was quick, powerful, and calculated, intending to throw his opponent off balance before quickly attacking again. Jackson could respect that kind of fighting style, but he didn’t appreciate that it was being used against him. 

“That was a close one, luckily your short little arms couldn’t reach me,” Jackson cackled. The man was quick to lunge again, but this time instead of simply stepping out of the way like before, Jackson grabbed his wrist and twisted upwards, forcing the knife to fall from his hand as he grimaced in pain. Twisting himself, the man spun out of Jackson’s grip, swinging his leg into his stomach before slamming his hand into Jackson’s right wrist. His knife clattered to the ground and for a moment he froze.

The man took this as an opportunity to sweep Jackson’s legs out from under him, causing him to fall heavily to the floor. 

“Not so cocky when you don’t have the upper hand are you?” the short man taunted, pressing his boot onto Jackson’s throat. Jackson stared up at the other man coldly, clawing at his leg as his vision slowly turning black around the edges.

Just as suddenly as the pressure had been applied, it was released and the man fell forward with a sickening thud. Jackson rolled over with a groan and looked over at him. One clean shot through the head. With a scowl, Jackson grabbed his knife and turned back to where Jaebum was holding his gun level with an angry look on his face.

“I totally had that under control,” Jackson muttered when Jaebum and Jinyoung came to his side so that they could finally enter the room Hanbin was cowering in.

“Like hell you fucking did,” Jaebum said seriously as Jinyoung scoffed. “Let’s finish this.”

Once they entered the room, the kill was easy. A single shot taken by Jinyoung with little resistance on Hanbin’s part. 

Still upset from his earlier blunder, Jackson pulled out his knife and trudged over to the desk. With a sweep of his arm, he knocked everything off of the surface and aggressively carved the seven sided polygon into the surface of the desk. 

After he had finished carving their calling card, he brushed past Jinyoung and Jaebum, leaving the room. The two shared a look before following him out of Hanbin’s office. 

Outside of the room, Jackson was hunched over one of the bodies he had killed, using all of his strength to stab a ‘J’ into the man’s cheek.

“Jackson could you maybe not-” Jaebum started, before getting cut off by Bambam in his ear.

“Guys, you need to get to the car right now,” he said, sounding upset. “We have somewhere we need to be.”

~~~~

“Someone needs to explain why the fuck this happened  _ right fucking now, _ ” Chan demanded as soon as they walked into the apartment, gesturing wildly at Jeongin lying on the couch, face contorted in pain. His shirt had been taken off, but his chest was entirely covered by a bandage. Pinpricks of blood were soaking up through the sterile, white material. Jeongin held tightly to Minho’s hand as Hyunjin stooped before him, ensuring the bandages were on properly. The other’s stood near the edge of the room, watching anxiously

“Chan slow down,” Bambam started, placing a hand on his shoulder. “What happened?” Chan knocked Bambam’s hand off. Grabbing the collar of his shirt, he slammed him against the wall. Bambam groaned in pain as his head made contact with the wall, his hands coming up to grab Chan’s. Behind them, Yugyeom took a step toward the two, fingers twitching over his gun. 

“This is your fault,” Chan snarled. “If we hadn’t done that job for you, he would be  _ fine, _ ” he choked.

“Chan let go of him right now,” Yugyeom said, his voice calm but laced with anger. He took another step forward, pulling out his gun and levelling it with Chan’s chest. 

“Everyone calm the fuck down,” Jaebum said assertively. “Chan, let go of Bambam and tell us what happened, and Yugyeom put away that gun.” Chan glanced at Jaebum before dropping Bambam’s collar and taking a small away from him. Once down, Bambam quickly moved over to Yugyeom, taking the gun from his hands and lowering his arm. 

“Go see for yourself,” Chan said softly, waving over at the couch, his eyes focused on the ground at his feet.

The seven of them made their way across the room to stand in a semicircle around the couch and the other boys. Youngjae stepped forward and knelt at the couch, gently nudging Hyunjin away who hesitantly allowed him to take his place.

“May I?” Youngjae asked, reaching towards the bandages on Jeongin’s chest. Minho nodded and scooted over slightly to make room for Youngjae, who began to carefully unwrap the bandages.

The room held its collective breath as slowly the wounds were uncovered. Jeongin whimpered softly as Youngjae pulled the last of the bandages off.

“Oh my god,” he whispered when the wounds came into view. Scrawled across Jeongin’s chest, still bloodied, were words. A very clear message etched into his chest. 

_ BACK _

_ OFF _

They all took it badly, the fact that Yang was willing to mutilate this kid, just to send them a message. Bambam grabbed at Yugyeom’s arm tightly, whining slightly as he hid his face in Yugyeom’s neck. Yugeyom however, stared wide eyed at the sight in front of him, unable to look away. A silent conversation began between Jaebum and Jinyoung, before they turned back to look at Jeongin gravely. With hands clenched tightly at Mark’s sides, his entire body flooded with a blinding rage. Turning abruptly, he stalked out of the apartment. Jackson was quick to follow after him.

“This wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t helped you,” Chan spoke up from where he stood, not looking at them. His voice shook as he spoke, fists clenching and unclenching by his sides. Nobody replied to him. 

~~~~

“He’s right you know,” Mark said calmly when Jackson shut the door softly behind him. Mark leaned against the wall across the hall, arms crossed and eyes trained on the floor. 

“You don’t know that,” Jackson tried to console, taking a small step toward Mark. 

“Yes I do,” Mark snapped, abruptly standing up straight. He stared hard at Jackson for a long moment. “He wouldn’t have been involved if we hadn’t involved him.” Jackson didn’t reply, only watching Mark fume in front of him. 

“That bastard,” Mark whispered turning around and pressing his forehead into the wall. “He did that to a  _ child _ .” Without any warning, Mark slammed his fist hard into the wall, groaning slightly. “I’m going to fucking kill him.” Jackson’s eyes widened at that and he took another step toward Mark, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“That isn’t a good idea,” he ventured slowly.

“Why the fuck not?” Mark shouted, rounding on Jackson. “It’s not like you care either way.”

“But you can’t just run in and kill him,” Jackson attempted again. “All that’ll accomplish is you ending up dead, and that won’t do anybody any good.” Mark stared at him for a long time before his composure finally broke and a broken sob left his lips as he tightly grabbed ahold of Jackson’s shirt and buried his face into his chest. Jackson hugged Mark against him tightly, rubbing soothing circles into his back.

“Mark, I promise that I do care,” Jackson said softly into Mark’s head.

“Don’t lie,” Mark bit out, letting go of Jackson’s shirt to try to push him away. The action only made Jackson hold on tighter.

“I’m not letting go,” Jackson whispered. Mark sobbed into his chest, slowly sinking to the ground, and pulling Jackson with him. He clutched Jackson like a lifeline, aggressive sobs wracking his entire body. Jackson held him just as tightly, rubbing calming circles on his back and whispering comforts into his hair. 

“We have to kill him,” Mark whispered when he had finally calmed down enough to form a sentence.

“Yeah,” Jackson agreed. “We have to kill him.”

****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we kinda had to do it...
> 
> we love jeongin so much, but he was the best one to do that to bc it would get the most reaction out of everyone, also if you want to yell at us on tumblr about it:  
> @acutest-angle (nel)  
> or  
> @studiomayaz (zoo)
> 
> We are going to be editing some of the previous chapters so that we can remember some of our plot and also make the first few chapters better!!!! so it might be a little before we update again
> 
> anyways, have a nice day, and thanks for reading <33333


	19. A Doctor and a Criminal Walk into a Bar

“It’s gotten too dangerous!” Jaebum shouted. After they had all left Chan’s apartment, Jaebum, Jinyoung, and Youngjae had gone back to their place. Tensions had been high the entire way back, but had blown up once the three had gotten back home. It had started amicably, but had quickly morphed into a shouting match.

“You know this job! You knew the dangers of it when you agreed to let me be part of the team!” Youngjae shouted back at him, fists clenched tightly at his sides and face red from shouting. 

“That was before they were mutilating  _ kids, _ Youngjae,” Jaebum said aggressively, concern underlying his tone. Jinyoung stood a distance away from the two, arms crossed over his chest, assessing the situation. 

“They’ve always been mutilating kids, Jaebum,” Youngjae replied irritably. “They’re criminals. It’s what they do. This is just the first time that you’ve seen it.” Hurt flashed across Jaebum’s face at Youngjae’s words before he schooled his face to neutral.

“You’re right,” Jaebum agreed tersely. “This is the first time they’re hurting kids around me, and I don’t want you around for that.” Youngjae bristled when Jaebum said this, setting his jaw and taking a deep breath before replying.

“I’m not a kid anymore, Jaebum,” Youngjae said lowly. “I haven’t been for a long fucking time.”

“You may not be a kid anymore, but--” Jaebum started, taking a step closer to Youngjae. 

“But nothing!” Youngjae screamed, pushing Jaebum away. Jaebum staggered backward, barely managing to maintain his footing. Shocked hurt settled across his face as he stood, frozen. Seeing things beginning to escalate beyond words, Jinyoung took a step toward them. “I’m not a child, so you don’t get to treat me like one just because you’re emotionally stunted.”

“Youngjae-” Jinyoung intervened, stepping between them.

“This isn’t your problem, Jinyoung. Just because you’ve got your hand down Jaebum’s pants, doesn’t mean you get anymore say in my life than him.” Youngjae spat, turning on his heel to make his way out of the apartment. “I can’t deal with you two.” Youngjae huffed, slamming the door behind himself as he left.

~~~~

Finding a shady, hole-in-the-wall place to get a drink wasn’t as hard as Youngjae had expected it to be. In his anger induced haze, he had wandered the streets of Seoul until he’d gotten lost. When he had finally calmed down enough to be able to see, he entered the first bar that he found, planting himself at the bar and immediately downing several consecutive shots. 

Currently, he was nursing his second beer after downing several more shots following his first beer. He was  _ very _ drunk at this point, and, while this probably wasn’t the best way to prove to Jaebum that he wasn’t a child, he really needed this right now. 

“Hey there, buddy,” a round-faced girl said, sliding into the seat beside him. She was dressed in a small black dress that hugged her body nicely and a pair of tall, strappy heels with her hair mused. Her cute face seemed almost out of place against the sexiness of her outfit. “Rough night?”

“You have no idea,” Youngjae muttered, drinking the rest of his beer. The girl watched him in amusement, flagging down the bartender and ordering a round of shots for both of them.

“You wanna talk about it?” she asked, easily taking her shot with Youngjae. 

“Jaebum is just being unreasonable,” Youngjae moaned miserably, dropping his head on to the counter.

“Jaebum?” The girl asked after a beat of silence. Her voice sounded strained, but Youngjae was way too far gone to notice.

“My brother,” Youngjae clarified, not lifting his head. Honestly, he just wished that the bar would swallow him.

“This wouldn’t be Im Jaebum would it?” the girl asked, carefully. Youngjae finally lifted his head to look at the girl in confusion.

“Yeah? Why?” he asked. She smiled at him, wrapping her hand around his.

“No reason,” she said cutely, eyes falling to his lips and trailing her fingers up his arm. “I’m Jennie by the way,” she said, looking up at him through her eyelashes. She finally wrapped her fingers loosely around the back of his neck, tugging him a little bit closer to her. 

“Youngjae,” he hiccuped, grinning slightly. She gave an airy laugh at that, wrapping her other arm around his neck and pulled him closer, ghosting her lips across his.

“You wanna take this out back,” she whispered against his lips. Youngjae only nodded, allowing her to pull him off his stool and lead him towards a door leading into the alley next to the bar. Jennie opened it, ushering him into the dark alley as she slipped her phone out of her pocket. Youngjae swayed on his feet and watched her in confusion, the strangeness of the situation not really making its way into his alcohol logged brain. 

After a moment of scrolling through the contacts, she lifted the phone to her ear, waiting as it rung a few times.

“What do you need? I thought you were going to the bar?” The voice on the other line answered.

“I did go to the bar, but you won’t believe who I found!” Jennie exclaimed, excitement evident in her voice as she maneuvered Youngjae to lean against the wall.

“I swear if Lisa followed you to the bar…” the voice grumbled, trailing off unhappily.

“Not today, Jisoo,” Jennie laughed. “I found  _ Choi Youngjae _ !” she chirped. There was a moment of silence as the voice on the other end seemed to wait for some sort of explanation. 

“Who?”

“Im Jaebum’s younger brother? The Im Jaebum who sent those kids into boss’s territory,” Jennie paused, hoping that was enough for Jisoo to understand.

“No shit?!” Jisoo asked excitedly.

“Yeah!” Jennie said beaming. “But I’m going to need a car because I think he’s going to pass out…” she paused looking at Youngjae who was slowly turning more green as his eyes glassed over. “Or throw up…”

“I’ll be there in like ten minutes,” Jisoo said. “Keep him with you until then.” 

“Of course,” Jennie brushed her off. “I’m not dumb enough to lose him.”

“Tell that to Lisa,” Jisoo huffed, hanging up the phone. Jennie grinned smugly as she leaned on the wall opposite of Youngjae. 

“You should really learn to handle your liquor,” she said casually as she watched his legs give out under him as he fell heavily to the ground, hitting his head when he collapsed. 

~~~~

When Youngjae came to, he was in the backseat of a car. His head felt like somebody had taken a sledgehammer to it, and the entire world swam in front of him when he opened his eyes. Groaning, he touched his fingers gingerly to his head; bringing them back down, he found them covered in blood. Groaning again, he dropped his hand and closed his eyes.

Finally listening to his surroundings, he heard two female voices whispering somewhere in front of him.

“He’s awake quiet the fuck down,” one of them scolded.

“He’s still so wasted,” the other responded flippantly, “he won’t remember any of this.”

“Jennie,” the initial voice said, the warning evident in her words. 

“Fine,” the second voice whined. After that, the car fell silent aside from the sound of the road. 

The constant movement of the vehicle only served to make Youngjae’s nausea more prominent. Absently, he pressed his fingers against his wrists, hoping to hit a pressure point and alleviate the sickness. It didn’t work.

Groaning again, he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes.

“What’s wrong, buddy?” the second voice asked cheerily. “Does your head hurt? You did hit it pretty hard when you fell.” Youngjae simply hummed, his head hurting way too much to attempt to form words.

“Stop making small talk with him, Jennie,” the other voice scolded.

“It’s not my fault you’re no fun to talk to,” Jennie said casually. “Plus, look at how pitiful he looks.”

Youngjae passed out again to the sound of the two bickering.

~~~~

Once they got back to their apartment, Bambam wrapped himself tightly around Yugyeom and forcibly settled them onto the couch. Yugyeom complied easily, wrapping his arms around Bambam comfortingly as Bambam hid in his side. They sat like that for a while, Bambam hiding in Yugyeom and Yugyeom holding him, until Bambam finally spoke.

“I can’t believe they’d do that to a kid,” he whispered into Yugyeom’s chest, wrapping his arms tighter around him. 

“It’s pretty fucked up,” Yugyeom responded, wiggling his arm until he could stroke Bambam’s hair gently.

“It’s beyond ‘pretty fucked up’,” Bambam muttered, leaning into Yugyeom’s touch. They fell back into a contemplative silence with Yugyeom stroking Bambam’s hair.

“Why does this bother you so much, Bam?” Yugyeom asked after a while. Bambam tensed in Yugyeom’s arms. Feeling this shift, Yugyeom disentangled them so that they were facing each other. Bambam immediately curled into a ball, hiding his face in his knees. Reaching out, Yugyeom gently coaxed Bambam to look up at him. Resting his hand on Bambam’s face, he ran his thumb over his cheek, waiting for him to respond. It broke Yugyeom’s heart to see Bambam look so small and afraid. 

“I don’t know,” he said, averting his gaze. He took a deep breath before continuing, his eyes locked on his hands in his lap “I always said that I thought we could do better than changing grades for those spoiled brats, and I knew it was breaking the law and that it was dangerous… but this?” he paused for a moment, shuddering slightly as the jagged cuts across the young boy’s body flashed through his mind. “This is too much…” he finished, still not looking up. A silence fell between them again as Yugyeom withdrew his hand, causing Bambam to shiver at the sudden cold. 

“Bammie, I hate to break it to you, but you’ve killed people,  _ I’ve  _ killed people,” Yugyeom said, reaching out and grabbing Bambam’s hand between his. Bambam stared at their joined hands, twisting his so that he could rub his thumb along Yugyeom’s wrist.

“But that’s different,” Bambam interjected, his eyes going a bit wide as they snapped up to look at Yugyeom.

“How so?” Yugyeom asked confused.

“Because…” Bambam started, attempting to find the words he needed. “We killed to protect ourselves. I mean, I killed to protect you, you killed to protect yourself and Mark. Plus, the only people that we’ve killed are bad people.”

“It’s not all black and white, Bammie. They have people of their own, people they want to protect like we protect each other. What they do might be very wrong, but that doesn’t also make them the bad guys,” Yugyeom explained softly. Bambam stared at him wide-eyed before his body suddenly shuddered with a sob as he fell forward into Yugyeom chest, arms wrapping tightly around him.

“I never thought that I would be the cause of a kid getting hurt,” he said between sobs, clutching tightly at the back of Yugyeom’s shirt. Yugyeom rubbed comforting circles on his back.

“This isn’t your fault, Bambam,” Yugyeom whispered, pressing a gentle kiss onto Bambam’s head. Bambam sobbed in Yugyeom’s arms for a while while Yugyeom murmured comforts into Bambam’s hair and rubbed his back. Eventually, his sobs subsided to staggered breaths.

“We just finished a pretty major job. You should just try to get some sleep,” Yugyeom reasoned once Bambam had calmed down enough to be able to listen to him. “You’ll feel better once you wake up.” Bambam just nodded, standing up to head back to bed. As he was starting down the hall, his phone began to ring. He briefly contemplated not answering before deciding that that was probably an awful idea. 

“Hello,” he answered meekly without looking at the caller ID.

“Bambam?” Jinyoung’s voice on the other end asked in confusion. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” he answered automatically, shuffling back out to Yugyeom and putting the phone on speaker. “What do you need?” There was a long pause on the other end.

“Youngjae’s missing,” Jinyoung told them gravely. Bambam and Yugyeom shared wide-eyed looks of alarm as Yugyeom quickly reached for his computer.

“Start at the beginning,” Yugyeom said, opening his laptop as Bambam leaned onto his shoulder. “And don’t leave anything out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woooo new chapter!!! Hitting y'all with some soft yugbam bc we can't get enough ^^
> 
> It might be a little bit until we update again bc finals week is coming soon (aka we graduate soon.. omg), who knows tho, we might end up stress writing lol
> 
> if we dont write before finals week, we'll see y'all in may <33
> 
> as always thanks for reading <<<33333333  
> -zoo


	20. The End of an Era

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we're sorry

Youngjae was slowly awoken by a voice speaking softly. His eyelids felt like they had been weighted down as he forced them open to see where he was. The bright light that shown from a single, bare bulb in the middle of the room caused a sharp pain to radiate through his head. Hissing, he tried to move his hands to cradle his head, but he found that they were bound tightly behind his back. Slowly, the situation began to dawn on him.

He was attached to a hard metal chair and the sharp material that bound his hands to the chair behind him was digging painfully into his wrists. Giving another experimental tug, he decided that his efforts were fruitless. Looking around, he saw the source of the voice that had awoken him just moments before. 

“I wouldn’t keep trying to break out if I were you,” the woman said. She stood leaning against the wall beside the door, long arms crossed over her chest. The light was just dim enough that she stood entirely in shadow, concealing her from Youngjae’s view. 

“Where am I?” he asked, a slight quiver in his voice. 

“Don’t you remember, sweetheart?” the woman asked, finally stepping back into the light. Her tall heels clicked behind her as she walked across the cold cement and toward Youngjae. She stopped just in front of him. Reaching out, she gently ran her fingers along Youngjae’s jaw. The contact of her cold fingers on his cheek caused him to shiver as he stared up at her.

“Maybe this’ll jog your memory,” she whispered, leaning in and pressing her lips gently to his. Youngjae recoiled as much as the restraints would allow and stared at her in horror. A mirthless laugh filled the room as she took a step away from him. 

The door suddenly swung open, an authoritative woman walked in sending the other woman a disapproving look.

“You’re awake,” she stated, looking Youngjae up and down.

“Yes,” Youngjae croaked, with a shaky nod. 

“He doesn’t even remember me, Jisoo,” the other woman whined with a theatrical pout. The new woman, Jisoo, sent her an unimpressed look 

“Did you call his brother?” Jisoo said exasperatedly, running a hand through her hair.

“My brother?” Youngjae asked, panic seeping into his words. His head spun as he looked between the two of them.

“Not yet, Rose was working on getting into his phone and getting the number,” the first women replied. “But we’ve called Yang and notified him of the situation.”

“Good,” Jisoo nodded. A knock on the door interrupted all further conversation. The door opened just a crack and a head poked through.

“Jennie, I need your help with his phone, neither Lisa nor I can get it,” the new girl said.

“I’ll be right there,” Jennie replied as the girl retreated out of the room. Jennie made her way to the door, pausing on her way out to turn to Jisoo. “Let me know if you need me to do anything else.”

Youngjae dropped his head backward, his head and body screaming as he did so. Tears pricked the corners of his eyes as he stared at the dark, concrete ceiling. The only thing that he could hope for at this point was that Jaebum was somehow ahead of these women and Yang. Either that or Jaebum wouldn’t come looking for him. A stray tear escaped Youngjae’s eye and slid down his cheek, leaving a cold feeling in its wake. 

~~~~

“The best I have is that Yang had some of his higher ups kidnap him,” Yugyeom was saying from where he had set up his temporary workplace. After Jaebum had described the situation to them, Bambam and Yugyeom had decided that it was probably a good idea to just go over to Jaebum’s apartment so that they could update them on their findings in real time.

“The only thing that doesn't make any sense about that,” Bambam went on from where he had perched himself near Yugyeom, “is that Yang hasn’t called yet to demand some sort of ransom.”

Across the room, Jaebum was clutching his phone like his life depended upon it as he stared blankly at the wall in front of him. He made no effort to acknowledge that either Yugyeom or Bambam had spoken. Jinyoung stopped where he had been pacing to look at them.

“So if it doesn’t make sense why are you saying it?” Jinyoung demanded lowly, fists clenching at his sides as he glared at them. 

“Have any other ideas about what happened to him then?” Bambam snapped, clenching his hands into fists as he moved to stand up. Yugyeom reached out and grabbed Bambam’s arm, pulling him back down to sit beside him.

“It’s because its the only lead that makes any sense at all,” Yugyeom said calmly. When neither of the other two made a move to fight each other again, Yugyeom looked back at his laptop which brightly informed him that it was well past 4am. “It’s late. We should all get some sleep and resume this tomorrow. Maybe by then Yang’ll have had time to call Jaebum with a ransom demand.”

“I’m not sleeping,” Jaebum said in a voice barely above a whisper. He was still staring resoutly at the wall in front of him. Jinyoung looked over at him and sighed heavily.

“Jaebum-”

“I’m not sleeping!” Jaebum shouted, slamming his hands onto the table, his phone falling discarded to the side. He had looked away from the wall was now staring angrily at Jinyoung. “I am  _ not _ sleeping while Youngjae is out who knows where having who knows what done to him!” Jaebum’s voice wavered by the end of his sentence. A few stray tears fell down his face as he weakly punched the table again before collapsing onto it, sobs wracking his entire body. 

Jinyoung walked to his side, hesitating before reaching out to place a comforting hand on Jaebum’s shoulder. 

“We’ll find him,” Jinyoung muttered, squatting down next to Jaebum’s chair. Jaebum made a strangled, sobbing sound.

“Look at me,” Jinyoung gently instructed, squeezing Jaebum’s shoulder lightly. “Hey, look at me, Jaebum,” Jinyoung said more authoritatively when Jaebum didn’t look up at him. Finally, Jaebum looked up towards Jinyoung, face red and blotchy from crying. 

“We’re gonna find him,” Jinyoung said assuringly, making steady eye contact with Jaebum. “But right now we all have to sleep. We’re useless to Youngjae if we’re all sleep deprived.” Jaebum took a shaky breath before nodding.

“Okay,” he said finally. “We’ll do more in the morning.” Jinyoung nodded and stood up, grabbing Jaebum’s arm as he went. As Jaebum stood and began to obediently follow Jinyoung out of the room, Jaebum’s phone on the table started to ring. Freezing momentarily, he ripped out of Jinyoung’s grip, running over to his phone to grab it.

“It’s a blocked number,” he breathed out, staring down at his phone in horror. Jinyoung was at Jaebum’s side in an instant, snatching the phone out of Jaebum’s hand. Answering, he pressed the phone to his ear shakily.

“I have something that belongs to you,” a woman on the other end said merrily. “And if you want him back, I recommend that you listen to this next set of instructions and do exactly what they say.”

~~~~

“Doesn’t it go against their demands having us here?” Mark asked after being filled in on what had happened to Youngjae. 

“Yeah, technically,” Bambam replied offhandedly, staring at the screen of the laptop as Yugyeom worked. 

After the woman had listed the demands and instructions, she had hung up before Jinyoung could even think of a reply. The demands she had listed had been simple: don’t call in the rest of the team, give up the territory they had already laid claim to, give up in their pursuits for power, and leave the city. 

Yugyeom had been trying to trace the call unsuccessfully before giving up and calling for reinforcements. 

“Do we even have a plan? They didn’t even tell you where they were keeping him,” Jackson spoke up from where he stood at the corner of the room, arms crossed over his chest. Jaebum sent him a piercing glare from where he sat slumped on the couch, Jinyoung perched at his side. 

“But based on the research Yugyeom’s been doing, and the people I’ve talked to, we can guess the general area that they’d be keeping him,” Bambam explained, still not looking up from Yugyeom’s work. 

“A general idea doesn’t get us much if we are trying to go on a rescue mission,” Jackson snapped, walking further into the room. 

“Do you have any better ideas then,  _ psycho _ ?” Jaebum seethed. Jinyoung placed a calming hand on Jaebum’s shoulder. Jaebum shrugged him off, glaring daggers at Jackson.

“What kind of psycho cliche do you think I am?” Jackson growled, taking another step into the room.

“Jackson’s right,” Mark said, interrupting the argument, “ if we just barge into every building that Youngjae might be in Yang will know we’re coming.”

“Then what the fuck do you suggest that we do?” Jaebum shouted. “It’s not like they’re just going to broadcast his location on the local news networks and those  _ women _ didn’t tell me where they were hiding him!”

“Guys-” Yugyeom started, staring at his computer in shock.

“Not now,” Jaebum snarled.

“No guys, listen” Yugyeom said more insistently. Turning his computer around for the rest of the room to see. On the computer was a live video feed from what looked like a security camera of Youngjae unconscious and tied to a chair in what appeared to be an abandoned building.

“I found him.”

~~~~

Jackson stood outside of the building that they that determined held both Youngjae and the group of girls that held him hostage. He wore his hood over his eyes and had his knife held loosely in his pocket. Mark watched him through his scope from a window in the abandoned loft building that sat adjacent to the building holding Youngjae. Down the street, Jaebum and Jinyoung waited to get the signal to enter as backup. Yugyeom and Bambam were positioned further down the street in a van, Yugyeom monitoring security cameras and Bambam keeping the engine hot.

“Everybody ready?” Jackson asked lowly, spinning his knife slowly between his fingers. 

“Let’s get Youngjae back!” Jaebum said.

“Fucking cliche,” Jackson mumbled, heading toward the building.

He slid soundlessly through the entrance, sticking close to the shadows and keeping his eyes out for anybody watching. As Jackson moved through the warehouse, he became increasingly unsettled by the absence of people. 

“Where is everybody?” he asked softly in the com. 

“I’ve been scanning through all the security feeds-”

“J-Flawless! So good to see you!” a woman said, stepping into the light. She was short with long, dark hair. She wore deadly looking stiletto heels and a short, low cut, bodycon, black dress. She was adorned in expensive pieces of jewelry, accentuating the cut of the dress and making her sparkle manically in the low light.

“And you are…?” Jackson asked, keeping his voice low and gruff.

“J-Flawless!” she gasped, hand over her heart. “I’m offended you don’t remember me.”

“And why would I remember you?” Jackson deadpanned.

“You do remember clients don’t you?” she asked, a playful smirk playing on her lips. Jackson cocked his head to the side, prompting her to continue.

“You were hired to kill a drug dealer, one who was dealing in places that weren’t his own,” she retold. Jackson’s face remained blank, still not recognizing her.

“It’s Jennie,” she spat, clearly having become irritated by the little guessing game. “Yang hired you to kill that man and I was the one who gave you the details.”

“I’ve been hired by a lot of people to kill dozens more. That job didn’t stand out and neither did you, no matter how much you tried,” Jackson said flatly, eyeing her up and down. Jennie scowled at the comment.

“Alright, you raging criminal asshole, I’m sick of your bullshit.” Jennie growled, slipping a knife out from a sheath attached to her thigh. Jackson laughed and advanced, swiping at Jennie with his knife.

“You think you can best me in a knife fight?” Jackson laughed, stepping backward as Jennie charged at him, knife at the ready. Flipping the knife in his hand, he attacked once again. Jennie stepped out of the way with ease, a deadly smile crossing her face. 

“You’re not the only one who has knife skills, dickhead,” Jennie countered, jumping forward and slashing at Jackson’s chest. The knife barely missed as Jackson dodged, leaving a small gash on his arm.

“Feisty little bitch,” Jackson hissed, charging forward and hooking his knife around her blade. Using her initial shock, Jackson pulled the knife from her grasp, throwing it across the floor.

“ _ Fucker _ ,” Jennie screeched. She grabbed at his shoulder, pulling it down and swinging her leg up at the same time, her eight inch stiletto barely missing Jackson’s head. Using the momentum Jennie pulled herself onto his shoulders, causing Jackson to fall heavily to the ground. As he fell, Jackson lost grip on the knife and it clattered loudly onto the ground next to them. Jennie attempted to pin him to the ground, bracing her knees on either side of his chest and pressing her arms down on his shoulders.

“Didn’t take you for the dominatrix type,” Jackson said, gripping her ankle in an attempt to shift her balance.

“You’re mistake,” Jennie quipped, slamming her heel sharply into his side. Jackson inhaled sharply at the sudden pain, but used the shift of her weight to propel himself over and on top of her. Jennie grunted as she was slammed into the ground, before grasping at Jackson’s wrists in an attempt to break free. 

“That’s okay,” Jackson grinned, reaching for the nearby knife, “you’re not my type anyway.” Jackson’s grip tightened on the handle, and the grin on his face grew.

“Maybe I’ll remember you this time,” he said, slicing the knife over her throat and listening to her choke on her own blood. “Though, probably not.” When the noise quieted and she stopped struggling, Jackson leaned forward and carved a ‘J’ into her cheek.

Standing up off of her body, he wiped the blade off on his hoodie sleeve and looked around the large room he was standing in. Picking a hallway, Jackson made his way through the too quiet building. 

“Not anything against you, but that’s the wrong hallway,” Yugyeom said hesitantly into the com.

“Well where am I supposed to go, Cam Boy?” Jackson asked irritably, turning around and walking back out.

“Hey, I’m just trying to help,” Yugyeom said quickly. “It’s the hallway directly across from the one you walked down.” Jackson sighed and walked across the open room to the other hallway.

“Third door on the right. That’s where I saw the rest of the girls go,” Yugyeom instructed as Jackson entered the hallway.

“Can you see into the room?” Jackson asked, cautiously approaching the door. 

“They disconnected the camera in the room, but I can still see the hallway,” Yugyeom explained. Jackson hummed in acknowledgement.

“I’ll probably need some backup right about now,” Jackson said into the com.

“Right behind you,” Jinyoung replied. Jackson stood still, watching the door and waiting for the other two to get there. Just as Jaebum and Jinyoung arrived, the door of the room opened and three other women walked out. They were all dressed a lot more practically than Jennie had been, wearing pants and boots.

“Boys!” one of them called cheerily. “So happy to see you all!”

“We’ve been expecting you!” another happily added, getting a sharp look from the first.

“Where’s Youngjae?” Jaebum growled at the women.

“He’s just back in this room,” the third said matter-of-factly. “You can go see him if you’d like. We won’t stop you.”

“You just have to let us leave,” the first said, eyes flickering to the exit.

“Why should we trust you?” Jinyoung questioned, taking a step to the side to block the hallway.

“We have nothing to gain from lying to you,” the first said evenly.

“You already killed Jennie,” the second spat angrily. The first rested a hand on her shoulder with a firm look. Jackson assessed them sharply.

“I don’t trust them,” he said under his breath to Jinyoung and Jaebum. Jinyoung glanced back at him and nodded once, opening his mouth to speak, but Jaebum beat him to it.

“Fine,” Jaebum said quickly. “Leave. Just let me see my brother.” The girls nodded and began walking to the exit. As they passed, the third woman grabbed Jaebum’s shoulder and leaned in close to his ear.

“In the future,” she said lowly, “keep your weaknesses more concealed.” She released him and followed behind the other two as Jaebum stared after her with wide eyes. Jinyoung glared after her.

Shaking out of his stupor, Jaebum lurched forward toward the door. Running into the room, he froze dead in his tracks.

“Youngjae,” Jaebum whispered, staring at the chair in the middle of the room. Youngjae was slumped against the back of the chair, his hands still bound behind him. His face was pale and his eyes were heavy. A large bloodstain marred his dirty shirt. He blinked several times before his eyes focused on his brother standing in the doorway. 

“Jaebum,” he said, his voice hoarse and weak. As he spoke, a small stream of blood fell from his mouth and down his chin. Jaebum’s heart ached as he stared at his bloody and beaten baby brother.

Jaebum ran across the room, quickly swiping at the ropes around Youngjae’s wrist with his knife. Youngjae’s breath hitched as his arms fell heavily to his sides, fresh tears fell silently down his already tear streaked cheeks.

“We have to get you out of here,” Jaebum cried urgently, reaching forward to try and move Youngjae out of the chair.

“Don’t,” Youngjae protested weakly, stopping Jaebum’s movements. “It’s too late for me.”

“Don’t say that,” Jaebum sobbed, collapsing on the ground next to the chair, burying his face into Youngjae’s knees. “We can save you, we just have to get you out of here.”

“No,” Youngjae whispered, his hand twitching as he tried to reach out to Jaebum. “There’s too much damage.” Jaebum grasped Youngjae’s hand in his own, looking up at his brother’s face.

“You don’t know that,” he begged, sobs racking his body.

“Jaebum, I do,” Youngjae said softly, fingers tightening around Jaebum’s hand slightly. He was more pale than before; his breaths more labored.

“I can’t lose you,” Jaebum pleaded, tears streaming down his face.

“You’ll go on. You always were the stronger of us,” Youngjae said, a weak smile twitching on his lips.

“I was strong for you,” Jaebum whispered, anguish on his face.

“Promise me you’ll keep going even without me,” Youngjae said, his voice growing weaker.

“No,” Jaebum frantically begged. “No, no, no, no. You can hold on. You can do it.” He was on the verge of hyperventilating as he grasped Youngjae’s hand like he could physically hold his life in his body.

“Jaebum,” Youngjae breathed. “Thank you.” His body stilled completely, head lolling to the side. Jaebum pressed Youngjae’s motionless hand to his forehead, bowing over his legs. Silent sobs shook his shoulders as he squeezed his brother’s hand. 

Jinyoung gently made his way into the room, walking cautiously over to Jaebum. He placed a comforting hand on Jaebum’s shoulder. 

“Jaebum,” Jinyoung said, voice cutting through the despondent silence of the room, “we need to leave.”

Jaebum broke down at the words, a violent, broken scream escaping his mouth as he folded in on himself even more, holding Youngjae like his life depended on it.

“Jaebum,” Jinyoung coaxed, moving to squat down beside him, his hand still on his shoulder. “He’s gone. We have to go before the police or some more of Yang’s men get here and kill  _ us _ .”

“I can’t leave him, I can’t just leave him here,” Jaebum rambled, tears soaking into Youngjae’s dirty, bloody pants. “He’s my baby brother. It’s my job to protect him. I can’t just  _ leave him here _ . He has so many things left to do, so many ambitions. He deserves so much. He needs more than me. I’ve failed him. It’s my fault he’s  _ gone _ …” Jaebum cried, his tears streaming down his face and falling into his lap.

A suffocating silence fell over the room, only broken by the sounds of Jaebum’s suffering sobs.

Jaebum’s final, broken word cut through the room like a knife.

“ _ Youngjae _ !”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was the only way it was gonna end lol


	21. Epilogue

Mark untied the apron from around his waist, carefully hanging it up in his locker tucked in the back of a small cafe. After Youngjae had died, he and Jackson had gotten a small apartment in a small country town, needing to get out of Seoul, and he finally sold his gun. The cafe that hired him didn’t pay much, but he was happy for the first time in a long time. 

Mark’s eyes felt heavy as he grabbed his bag, shuffling out the door and locking it up behind him. Work had started early in the morning and he was ready to fall asleep in Jackson’s arms. The walk back to the apartment was short, and Mark soon found himself in front of their front door. Digging his keys from his pocket, he unlocked the door.

Jackson sat on the couch, wearing his black hoodie and polishing his knife. Mark frowned when he saw him, but went over and settled beside him no less.

“Where are you going tonight?” Mark asked softly, resting his head on Jackson’s shoulder. Mark reached forward and pulled Jackson’s hand from where he was polishing the blade, tangling their fingers together. 

“Don’t worry, babe. I’ll be fine,” Jackson said, setting the knife down and turning his head to place a soft kiss on Mark’s forehead.

“I just can’t lose you,” Mark whispered, staring down at their interlaced fingers. “Not after what happened with Youngjae and Jaebum.” 

Jackson squeezed Mark’s hand firmly, pulling him close. He gently stroked Mark’s hair while silent tears trailed down Mark’s cheeks. 

~~~~

Bambam wandered into the living room where Yugyeom longued on the couch, laptop propped on his legs. Grinning, he moved the laptop and settled onto Yugyeom’s lap.

“I was working,” Yugyeom pouted. Bambam leaned forward, bracing his arms on either side of Yugyeom’s head.

“Well you aren’t now,” Bambam pointed out innocently. Leaning down, Bambam pressed a gentle kiss on the corner of Yugyeom’s lips.

“I really need to work,” Yugyeom said, closing his eyes. “Park needs some work done.”

“He’s a douche. Work later,” Bambam muttered, trailing kisses down his neck. Yugyeom hummed in agreement, tangling his fingers in Bambam’s hair.

“I love you,” Bambam whispered against Yugyeom’s lips.

“I love you, too,” Yugyeom said, capturing Bambam’s lips with his own.

~~~~

Jinyoung stirred the pot on the stove slowly, zoning out as he did so. A timer beeping snapped him out of it and he moved the pot off the stove and turned off the heat. He scooped some of the soup into a bowl and made his way carefully to the bedroom.

The room was pitch black, long dark curtains blocking out any light. 

“Jaebum,” Jinyoung said softly, switching on a small lamp beside the door. “I brought some food.” Jinyoung kneeled beside the bed, pulling back the covers enough to see Jaebum. Jinyoung’s heart broke when he saw his best friend’s face. Jaebum’s bloodshot eyes, the black circles under his eyes, the dried tears on his cheeks, the long messy hair. A cold bowl of soup sat on the bedside table, untouched.

“Please,” Jinyoung urged softly, reaching out and petting Jaebum’s hair. “You need to eat. He wouldn’t have wanted you to do this to yourself.” Jaebum stared ahead unseeing.

“You don’t know what he would have wanted,” Jaebum whispered, his voice hoarse. Fresh tears fell down his cheeks, covering the tear stains with fresh marks. Jinyoung set the bowl down and pulled Jaebum into his chest. Jaebum clung to him tightly, sobbing into Jinyoung’s shirt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you so much to everyone who read this, commented, and gave us kudos. we're sorry that it took us so long to finish this (over a year) but its finally over  
> thank you to everyone who stuck by us, and this mess of a fic <33333  
> we hope that you enjoyed this because we put so much effort into this even though its kinda shitty lol  
> we'd like to say we'll go back and edit this to make it better, but if we're being honest there's no way thats gonna happen lol  
> we really appreciate you guys
> 
> on an unrelated note, if you'd like some funnier and not sad content from us go follow our incorrect quotes blog on tumblr @incorrectk-popquotes 
> 
> <3333333333333333333


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